


The Wrath Of Chat Blanc

by phantomthief_fee



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: I wanted Adrien to have a sister, I wanted him to have someone who cared about him, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Jeanne gets powers eventually but it takes a bit for it to happen, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-01-21 15:31:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 16
Words: 40,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12460680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomthief_fee/pseuds/phantomthief_fee
Summary: Jeanne Agreste is the eldest child of the Gabriel Agreste and older sister to Adrien. Though she and her brother are inseparable, she can't help but she can't help but be jealous of his superhero life and the friends he has at school. Which is when a strange kwami appears to her, making her an offer she can't refuse.





	1. Stormy Weather

Everyone had always said Jeanne Agreste looked just like her mother, and she really did. She was the spitting image of the woman; long blond hair, a shapely body, green eyes, and the most adorable freckles and button nose. She shared her mother's face, her laugh, her smile, and so much more. Which had made things rather difficult after Mrs. Agreste's disappearance. Gabriel refused to so much as look at his daughter after that, leaving her to do what she wished. For the most part, that was just painting. She was five years older than Adrien, but the two of them were inseparable. Their rooms were next to each other, a door joining them. It seemed they were never apart, although this had had since changed with Adrien going to public school. Jeanne jumped at every opportunity to spend time with her brother, given that she wasn't really allowed out of the house unsupervised. Which was why she was with him now at his photoshoot. Adrien had told her she didn't have to come, but she'd insisted.

"I haven't gone out in days." She said as she packed her bag. "Literally, days."

"But you're sure?" Adrien leaned on the door frame. "It'll be boring. And there might be an akuma. I don't want you to get hurt." Jeanne turned and glared pointedly at him.

"It's not like I'm made of glass." She muttered. "I'm 19, I've made it this far just fucking fine."

"I'm just worried." Adrien trailed after her as she stormed towards the car. "Am I not allowed to be worried?"

"You're allowed to be worried, but you don't have to treat me like I'm gonna break all the time." She snapped. Nathalie said nothing, deciding it would be better to just let the siblings bicker it out. These things usually passed within a few minutes after all. They spent the car ride in silence, and Jeanne began furiously sketching once they got to the location of the photoshoot. Today it was a picture of her brother, as he was put through the wringer by the photographer.

"He's a pain, isn't he?" She said when he got a break and sat down next to her. "I worked with him once. He kept telling me to arch my back, I don't even know why."

"What were you modeling?" He snorted and took a sip of water.

"It was for some stupid perfume." She shrugged. "Innocence or something. I was like 12, I don't know what he expected from me."

"What do they expect from any of us?" Adrien sighed.

Jeanne grinned and laughed, punching his arm. "Fair point. This business is crazy." She looked back down at her sketchpad, adding a few new details to the picture. She'd drawn her brother as Chat Noir, fighting the photographer as an akumatized villain.

"Hey!" Adrien saw the drawing and made a grab for the notebook. "What are you doing?"

"I'm drawing. What does it look like?" She held the book out of his reach.

"You can't draw that!" He hissed.

"What? You think someone will just make the connection?" Jeanne laughed. "If anyone asks I can just say I have a crush on him." She adopted a dramatic pose. "Oh, Chat Noir! Your puns...They've taken my breath away! Pray, don't take advantage of a poor helpless lady like myself!"

"You're the worst."

"You love me."

"I do and I hate it." He couldn't help but smile a little as his sister ruffled his hair. When she laughed and joked, it was hard for him not to feel happy and ease.

"Hey." She stopped fluffing up his hair and pointed. "Aren't those girls in your class?" She knew full well that they were and the giant crush that Marinette had on her little brother. Adrien looked up.

"Oh, yeah. They are." He waved. Marinette's reaction was pretty much what Jeanne had expected. Nervous laughter, stiff waving. The girl had it bad.

"You better get back to work." She said, gently pushing her brother up. "The sooner we get this over with the sooner we can go home and I can cream you in Ultimate Mecha Strike III."

" _I'm_  going to win this time." Adrien put his water bottle down.

"Sure you will, bro."

While Adrien did his duty as a model, Jeanne discreetly watched Marinette's little group. She'd seen Alya before, but the little girl with them was new. Marinette must be babysitting, she concluded. Maybe she should go talk to her. Jeanne was about to get up, then remembered that Marinette had never actually formally met her. The girl would likely just freak out and be starstruck. So the eldest Agreste child sat back down and looked at her sketchbook, flipping back a few pages. She'd been mostly drawing her brother or her room. What else was there to draw after all? She never got to do anything. She sighed and tapped her fingers on the paper. She had a few unfinished drawings, maybe she could work on those. She settled on the drawing she'd begun of a young man. She'd started it after reading a bunch of fairytales and starting to wish for a prince. It was stupid and she knew it, but this was the only way she was ever going to have a romance.

"Hey! Jeanne!" Adrien shook her shoulder, jerking her from her thoughts. "The photographer says we need a girl."

"A girl? Why?"

"Yes! Yes! Bring her up!" The photographer declared. "Miss Jeanne can bring us our romance!"

"Romance?" She blinked. "Um, don't you think it would be a little uncomfortable? We're siblings after all. Plus, I've been out of the business for a while now. It's probably best if you find someone else."

"Nailed it."

"Shut up, stringbean."

"Ah, I see." The photographer nodded. "I suppose you are right." He looked around then gasped.

"You!" He ran over and grabbed Alya's arm. "I need an extra!" Jeanne blinked. Okay, Marinette might actually end up on the shoot. And she hadn't even done anything.

"Who, me?" Alya asked.

"Si!" The photographer nodded enthusiastically. "To pose with Mr. Adrien!"

Alya laughed nervously. "You don't want me. I...Uhh...I think I'm having an allergic reaction to this apple. I know just the person you need! Hold that thought!"

Jeanne watched as the other girl turned tail and rain back to Marinette.

"That Asian girl would bring a good presence." She said, innocently doodling on her sketchpad. "You'd have some great shots with her."

"Hmm." The photographer narrowed his eyes and stroked his chin, looking in Marinette's direction. "Yes...Yes, she does have an air about her." Yes, this was going exactly according to plan. Jeanne mentally patted herself on the back, as well as silently praising Alya. The girl was clever. It was then that everyone in the park started screaming. This threw Jeanne for a loop. Her first reaction was assuming they were screaming about her and Adrien, but they'd been there for two hours with few reactions so it couldn't be that. She turned around. An outrageously dressed girl was floating in the air shooting ice at everyone and laughing maniacally.

"Oh shit." An akuma? Now?

"Distraction?" She whispered to Adrien. He nodded as he darted behind the tree to retrieve Plagg. Sighing deeply, she put down her sketchpad, brushed off her dress, and fainted. The photographer and his crew rushed to her side, fanning her and holding her up. She peeked out of the corner of her eye to see Chat Noir jumping away. Alright, good. Her work was done. She still couldn't believe people were still buying the faux fainting act though.

"Miss Agreste?" The photographer shook her gently. "Miss Agreste, we really need to get out of here." Her eyes fluttered open and she sat up.

"Right. Sorry. I was just...Really surprised." She laughed nervously. "A floating girl shooting ice out of a parasol isn't exactly normal." She let them help her up and away from where the heroes were fighting the akumatized villain. Jeanne took a few deep breaths and told herself everything would be fine. Adrien would defeat the villain and come home safe. Her brother's double life was doing nothing to help her anxiety issues.

"It'll be alright, Miss Agreste." One of the crewmen said, patting her on the shoulder. "Ladybug and Chat Noir will keep us safe."

"I'm sure you're right." She nodded slowly.

There was a crash behind them and she peeked out from the hiding spot. The freaky floating girl, who was apparently calling herself Stormy Weather, was throwing cars. Jeanne's eyes widened and she started to hyperventilate. Stormy Weather was throwing fucking cars at her little brother! And there was thunder and lightning and this was terrifying. Maybe this was why Adrien kept telling her to stay home while he did his thing. She was starting to think it might actually be a good idea. She ducked back down and closed her eyes, trying to regulate her breathing, just like her mother had taught her. In and out. In and out. This panic attack was not going to beat her.

" _Just take deep breaths, Jeannette." Her mother placed her hands on her daughter's. "I'm here. Breathe with me." Hiccupping and sobbing, Jeanne wiped away tears and snot, following her mother's example. Her breaths were shaky at first, given that she was still crying. Gradually though, she began to breathe normally._

_Her mother smiled and touched her forehead to Jeanne's. "See? I knew you could do it."_

" _Mama?" The door to Jeanne's bedroom cracked open, Adrien's little face peeking in. "Is Jeanne okay?"_

" _She's better now." Their mother beckoned for him to join them on the bed. He quickly ran over, latching onto his sister's arm._

" _It's gonna be okay." He rubbed his face on her sleeve. "We're here for you."_

" _Exactly, dear."_

Those had been better days. She opened her eyes again, much calmer now. It sounded like the fight was still going on. She fished out her phone and found a news feed to watch. They were on the roof of the TV station now, Stormy Weather shooting, creating twisters. Jeanne smiled softly and touched the screen as she watched her brother and Ladybug fight back. They were always so clever those two. They worked together so well. She swallowed the lump in her throat that always formed at moments like these. He was so lucky to have a friend like that. Before she knew it, the battle was over and the day was saved once again by Chat Noir and Ladybug. Once again her fears were put to bed and her brother came back to her safe and sound. She and the photography crew crept out from their hiding place and back to the photoshoot. She picked up her sketchbook, dusting it off as if nothing had happened. A few moments later Adrien came running up. The photographer wasted no time in getting back to business, asking for that girl they'd been talking to before to come back. And Marinette did come back. But it wasn't her that the photographer gravitated towards.

"Wait...Who is this angel?" He asked, pointing to the little girl Marinette had been babysitting. "She's perfect!"

"Looks like you get to see what it's like to be the older sibling." Jeanne said, grinning at Adrien.

"At least it won't be as awkward as doing it with you." He shrugged. The tone of the photos turned out to be more lighthearted than romantic, but that was fine. As long as they got the shots, nothing else mattered. Jeanne nodded to herself. Everything was fine.


	2. The Bubbler

It was Adrien’s birthday, and Jeanne was assuming he’d be spending it in the same way he had for the past couple years. There would be no party, no celebration, and a stupid ballpoint pen from Father. She could already hear him moving around in his room, and Plagg’s high pitched voice wishing him a happy birthday. She got out of bed and slipped on a robe. It was her duty to make his day good as well. On her way over, she took out the present she’d gotten, hiding it behind her back. She opened the door between their rooms to see her brother’s kwami shoving a piece of camembert in his face. 

“Well, you know what they say.” She leaned on the doorframe. “It’s the thought that counts.”

“The thought isn’t going to stop me from smelling this stupid cheese all day.” Adrien glowered, holding his nose. Plagg shrugged and ate the camembert himself. The scent of the cheese did linger though, as Adrien had expected. 

“Aw, I’m sorry.” She ruffled his hair. “I’ll lend you my perfume if you want.”

“Which one?” Jeanne had a vast collection of perfumes in her closet, most of which she’d been given for various Agreste promotions. Some were amazing. Some were....less than stellar. 

“Whichever one you want.” She promised. “But first, your gift.” She presented the box to him. She’d wrapped it in red paper with black polka dots. 

“Did you do this on purpose?” He asked. 

“I don’t know. Have you been talking about a certain superhero nonstop for the past year or so?” She batted her eyelashes innocently. Adrien muttered something she was sure was very rude and grabbed the box from her. 

“Oh come on, I’m your big sister! It’s my job to tease you!” 

“You’re the worst.” He said, but he was smiling. 

“You always say that. Now open my gift.” She bounced on the balls of her feet as he tore off the paper. He nearly dropped the box once he saw what it was. 

“No way.” Adrien’s face lit up. “This is the  **limited edition** Ladybug action figure! They only made like **ten** of these! How did you get this?!”

“I waited in line for an entire day.” She said. “It wasn’t easy, let me tell you that. But it was worth it to see you smile.” He threw the box aside and hugged her, muttering multiple thank you’s into her shoulder. She squeezed him, using one hand to ruffle his hair. It was always worth it to see him smile. 

“Now, about that perfume.” The two of them ended up trying a dozen perfumes until they found one that made Adrien smell less like cheese. It wasn’t perfect, but it would do. 

“Thanks.” Adrien said. 

“No problem.” Jeanne shut the perfume closet. “Now, while you’re here, help me pick out a dress.”

“A dress? Why?”

“It’s your birthday!” She said, grabbing his arm. “I want to look nice! Who knows, this might be the year you actually get a party!”

“You really think so?” 

“Maybe.” Jeanne forced herself to smile. That had not been a good decision she decided. She’d gotten his hopes up. The odds that Gabriel was finally going to throw his youngest child a party were very slim. Adrien would get the same goddamn pen and go to bed a year older and just as disappointed as always. She stood back and scratched her arm while Adrien rifled through her wardrobe. 

“Jeanne!” She stopped and looked down at her arm. She’d drawn blood. Adrien dropped the dress he’d been holding and grabbed the box of bandages Jeanne kept on her bedside table. 

“Sorry.” She said. 

“You don’t need to apologize.” He said, wrapping up her arm. “What’s bothering you?”

“I shouldn’t have gotten your hopes up.”

“Hope isn’t a bad thing, Jeannette.”

“In our lives it is.”

She put on the dress Adrien had picked out, along with some stylish pumps, and the two of them went down to the dining room. As expected, they were eating breakfast alone. The cook brought them their meals and Nathalie arrived to give them their schedules. 

“Your schedules.” She handed each of them a tablet. 

“Thank you, Nathalie.” Jeanne said. 

“Thanks.” Adrien echoed. “Hey, um, did my father get back to you about my birthday party?” For the briefest moment, Jeanne saw a glimmer a hope in her brother’s eyes. Nathalie tensed up. 

“Well, um-- He...” She struggled to find an answer. “Doesn’t think that would be a good idea.”

“Course not...” Adrien’s face fell. He finished his meal and got up to leave. 

“Happy birthday, Adrien.” Nathalie said as he left. Then she and Jeanne were alone in the cavernous dining room. 

“Father said what he always said, didn’t he?” Jeanne asked, finger skimming over the tablet. 

“As if we expecting anything less.” Nathalie collected Adrien’s plate and sighed heavily. “He gave me the pen and everything.” She started to leave the room, stopping at the entrance. “Dr. Delacroix is coming today, don’t forget that.” Jeanne stared at her plate, listening to the sound of Nathalie’s heels clicking on the marble floors, slowly getting farther away. How could she forget the weekly psychiatrist appointment? She got up, taking her dishes to the kitchen herself. She had at least an hour before Delacroix arrived and grilled her on all the usual things. Was she taking her meds, was she having any suicidal urges, the usual. She collapsed face first onto her bed. No makeup, so she didn’t have to worry about smudging anything. Her schedule didn’t involve going outside all day. Just like always. 

“But don’t you worry my dear,” she put on an exaggerated male voice. “I’m here for you.” She pulled out her sketchbook and turned to the drawing of the prince. 

“Of course you are, Alban.” She smiled softly. 

“Who is Alban?” Her father’s voice from the doorway startled her. Jeanne scrambled and tried to hide the portrait, but it was too late. Gabriel took the book from his daughter’s hands. 

“Ah, another one of your pictures.” He put it on her desk. “You had me worried for a moment.”

“I’m sorry, Father.” She sat up, hands folded primly in her lap. “I was simply trying to amuse myself.”

“So long as you behave, it’s fine.” He turned away, walking back to the door. “Dr. Delacroix has come early. He wanted my opinion on your current state.” As though Gabriel actually paid attention to her mental state, she thought bitterly. 

“Should I be expecting him in soon?”

“In a few minutes, yes.”

“Thank you, father.”

Gabriel walked to the door and she half expected him to just leave. But he didn’t. 

“This is....This is helping you, isn’t it?” He asked, his back still to her. “Delacroix said that only you can determine that for yourself.”

“It is helping, thank you.” It was that occasional tenderness that made her even more conflicted. She wanted so badly to believe that her father no longer cared about her nor her brother, but those moments made her doubt her hatred.

“You should get back to work.” She said. “I’m sure you’re quite busy.” He left just as quickly as she’d expected him to.

“Couldn’t even look at me.” Jeanne muttered.

The session with Delacroix went the way all her sessions with him went. The two discussed her medications levels, how she was feeling, did she think the meds were making a difference. It was alright, but not her favorite thing. The sessions with him were certainly better than with past psychiatrists though. The ones her father had hired were always too cold and clinical, like her father when he was working. When that was over, she had time to herself. Having exactly one friend, she decided to give him a call to kill time. She dialed his number and listened as the phone rang. 

“Hello?”

“Hey, Théo.” She said, relaxing a little at his voice. 

“Jeanne!” There was a clatter on the other end of the phone. “How are you? We haven’t talked in forever!”

“I’m fine. Is this a good time? I heard a lot of loud noises.”

“Everything’s fine.” Théo said. “The mayor just commissioned me to do a statue of Ladybug and Chat Noir and everything has been crazy lately with that. I knocked over a couple trays when I answered the phone. I’m...I’m gonna have to pick that up later.”

“No way! The mayor commissioned **you** ? That’s great Théo!” 

He laughed. “Yeah, it’s a real honor. And he’s paying me really well, so no crazy part-time jobs for a little.”

“Remember to sleep.” She said, shifting effortlessly into mom mode, something she’d perfected in the past two years.

“Thanks, I needed the reminder.” He yawned. “I should get back to work though. This is a pretty big project and all. Sorry to cut the conversation short.”

“Don’t worry about it.” She said. Downstairs, she heard the front door slam shut. “I need to go too. Adrien’s home.”

“Say hi to him for me.”

“I will.” She hung up and put the phone on her bedside table. Slamming was not a good sign. Either Adrien was in a bad mood or Father was. The latter was arguably worse. She crept out of her room and down the stairs to the front entrance, careful to stay out of sight. There was Gabriel at the top of the foyer stairs, but it wasn’t Adrien standing at the bottom of the stairs. It was his friend. Nino, wasn’t it? 

“Look, I know you don't want Adrien to have a party,” Nino was saying. “But it's his birthday, dude-- I mean, sir-- it's all he wants.” Jeanne nearly groaned out loud. That poor boy. She didn’t want him to have to get dragged into the shitstorm that was their family, and she was sure Adrien felt the same. But it was sweet that her brother had finally found a friend who cared so much.

“No.” Gabriel said. “That’s final.”

“That’s messed up!” Nino said. “He never screws up in class, he always does whatever you tell him. Photoshoots, fencing, Chinese, piano--” While he spoke, Adrien entered silently through the front door, looking rather surprised to see Nino there. 

“Nino? You’re here.” He couldn’t help but smile a little. 

“Anything for my best bud.” Nino patted Adrien’s shoulder then turned back to Gabriel. “Show some awesomeness, du-- I mean, sir, please.” It was almost painful to watch as her father glowered down at Nino. Jeanne began to step out, try to argue for Adrien finally having a real birthday, but her father’s harsh voice drove her back to a place where none of them could see her. 

“Listen, young man. I decide what’s best for my son.” He practically snarled. “In fact, I’ve just decided that you’re a bad influence and you’re not welcome in my house ever again. Leave now!” 

“Father, he was just trying to do something cool for me.” Even Adrien’s protests were no use though. Gabriel disappeared and Nathalie stepped in to try and control the situation. Jeanne’s hands were in fists by her side. When Adrien’s friend was shown out she went after him. 

Nino hunched his shoulders and stormed away from the Agreste mansion. Well, it was settled, Adrien’s father was seriously uncool. It just wasn’t fair! Adrien was just a kid, he deserved to have a party. 

“Hey.” Someone caught Nino’s arm and pulled him back. He recognized the person holding his arm as Adrien’s sister. He’d seen her in tons of magazines. She was a lot shorter in person. 

“I’m sorry about Father.” She said, offering an apologetic smile as she conveyed the same message her brother had a moment before. “He’s very set in his ways. I think throwing a party would be great. Do you want to plan it with me? We can hold it somewhere else. The park maybe?” She had an eager enthusiasm behind her words that just made Nino even more upset. 

“He doesn’t let you have parties either, does he?”

Jeanne’s smile faltered and went out completely. “We’ve never had a birthday party. Neither of us.” She let go of Nino’s arm. “I’m sorry. You don’t deserve to be drawn into our family drama.” 

“Adults ruin everything.” Nino muttered, pulling his arm from Jeanne’s grip. She sighed and headed back inside. Wonderful. Fan-fucking-tastic. Well, time to do damage control. Adrien was in the dining room, picking at his lunch. 

“Hi, Jeanne.” He said, not even looking up. 

“Hey.” She sat down next to him where another plate was set for her. “Sorry about the thing with Nino.”

“It’s no big deal.” He pushed his food around the plate. “I should be used to it by now, right?”

“Don’t talk like that.” She said. “I’m not allowed to spiral into depression so neither are you. We’ll throw you a party. And I will sneak that boy back into this house.”

“You’ll get in trouble.”

“What’s he going to do, yell at me?” Jeanne asked, smiling tightly. “He’s too afraid I’ll shatter like glass to do that. Worst case scenario, I just get grounded. It won’t be that different from normal.”

“Jeanne, you don’t need to do that. I can handle disappointment.” He insisted. 

“Look, my life’s already in shambles, Adrien.”  She stuffed a forkful of salad in her mouth. “The least I can do is make sure you get out alright.”

“Your life isn’t in shambles.”

“Just eat your lunch.”

Both of them knew they weren’t going to get anywhere with this conversation. Both were in foul moods and if they tried to talk while like this it ended with anger and/or tears. Jeanne offered to walk him back to school once they’d finished their lunch and were feeling better. 

“Sure. I guess.” He shrugged. 

“Nathalie! I’m taking Adrien back to school!” Jeanne yelled up the foyer stairs. She frowned when there wasn’t an immediate answer. “Nathalie? Father?”

“They’re probably busy.” Adrien said. 

“Probably.” Nathalie really needed to get paid more for all the shit that woman put up with. The siblings opened the mansion doors....And found a crowd of Adrien’s classmates. 

“Happy birthday!” The crowd chanted. Jeanne blinked. Oookay. This was new. Not a bad development, but new. 

“Looks like you’re getting your party after all.” Jeanne said, smiling and nudging him in the ribs. But Adrien wasn’t smiling. She followed his gaze and stopped smiling as well. 

“Hey, hey, hey, birthday boy. Guess what? Daddy's gone. While the cat's away, the mice will play.” It wasn’t hard for the two of them to figure out that the ridiculously dressed person standing on top of the bubble was Nino. It still sounded like him, and with Jeanne’s artistic predisposition to memorize the anatomy and facial features of everyone around her she knew instantly who it was. 

“The Bubbler's brought all yo homies together for one single-sole purpose, to ce-le-brate!” The Bubbler hopped down, landing in a DJ booth neither of them had even noticed was there. Of course, there was a DJ booth. “Let’s get this party started!” The other teenagers were screaming and cheering. 

“This is actually kind of nice.” Jeanne said, mostly to herself. It sucked that Adrien was going to have to go transform right now. Using his sister as cover, Adrien ran back inside. This caused some of the excitement to die down. 

“Come on everybody. I brought you here to party!” The Bubbler said, the lack of happiness not going unnoticed. “So dance or you'll join the adults up in the sky!”  That....That was not good. Jeanne backed into the mansion and ran to find Adrienn. He was in his room, having an intense debate with Plagg about whether or not to actually join the party. 

“Okay, just...Just a heads up.” She said in between gasping breaths. “If we don’t look like we’re having fun he’s apparently going to bubble us like he did the adults. So...That’s something to consider.”

“But this might actually be fun.” Adrien said. “I can actually have a party for once!” As bad of an idea as Jeanne thought this was, Adrien looked so happy, so excited. She bit her tongue and smiled. 

“Let’s go then.”

The party was...nice. Neither sibling really had a level to judge parties, but they thought it was a good party. Even if the presence of Chloé made them a little uncomfortable. They’d known her for years, sure, and she was practically their only friend, but she could be a real bitch sometimes. Chloé may have been 5 years younger than Jeanne, but the older girl constantly worried that if she tried to set Chloé straight, she’d become a victim herself. People in power had a tendency to do that if you disagreed with them. But she had to stand up to her fears at some point. One of the worst parts of Chloé was the fact that she never took no for an answer. Multiple times during the party, Jeanne tried to discreetly tell Chloé that Adrien did not in fact like her in that way. Subtlety apparently wasn’t the way to go, as it went right over the younger girl’s head. Jeanne moved to the edge of the party and got herself some punch. Aside from the adults being whisked away, this really wasn’t so bad as far as Akuma attacks went. Adrien was happy at least. Although....No one else looked very happy. Adrien’s classmates all looked sad, going through the motions in fear of being bubbled. Suddenly the music changed and Jeanne saw Chloé saunter up to Adrien, obviously intent on getting a slow dance in. The two did dance, but Jeanne broke it up before Chloé could get any action.

“Adrien’s obviously getting very tired, I think he should take a rest.” She said, forced smile firmly in place. 

“Oh, okay.” She was always surprised how easily Chloé believed her. 

“You need to learn to tell that girl no.” Jeanne hissed, steering Adrien off to the side. “Otherwise she’ll be trying this shit for the rest of our lives.” 

“Why can’t you tell her?” Adrien asked. 

“Because...” Jeanne trailed off, shifting uncomfortably. 

“What makes you think she’s even going to listen to me?” Adrien settled down on a bench, folding his arms. “If anything, she’d listen to  _ you _ . You’re the older one.” Before the argument could continue further, Ladybug appeared, chucked a record at the Bubbler, and promptly disappeared. 

“Was that-?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you think she’s coming back?”

“Eventually.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Marinette appear on the outskirts of the party with her friend Alya. Huh. So she’d finally showed up. 

“I’m gonna get back to enjoying my party now.” Adrien got up and stretched. “You good here?”

“Yeah.” She waved her brother away, going back to people watching. One of Adrien’s classmates wasn’t dancing. This time, the Bubbler had noticed. 

“Hey, you.” The villain jumped down. “Why aren’t you having fun?”

In typical sulky teenage fashion, the boy replied, “None of your business.”

“Then I’m going to make it my business.” The Bubbled pulled out what Jeanne assumed was supposed to be a sword from a sheath on his back. Except...it looked more like a bubble wand. Before any of them knew what was happening, the boy was in a bubble and floating away. The anxiety began to set in again. This party was for Adrien, she knew that, but what if her brother did something to piss off the villain? The Bubbler had returned to the stage now, with Adrien joining him. 

“Hey Paris! How you doing?” He crowed into the mike. Jeanne chewed on her thumbnail as the crowd of teenagers was threatened into cheering by the Bubbler’s sword. She couldn’t take it anymore, running inside. She hid in her room, wrapping herself in a cocoon of blankets. She blocked out all the sound around her, focusing only on her breathing. 

When she opened her eyes again, it was because Adrien was shaking her shoulder. 

“Look at what Father gave me!” He said, shoving an item in her face. No mention of the akuma incident, thankfully. She took the item from him, turning it over in her hands. It was a blue scarf, handmade from what she could tell. Gabriel had finally decided to give Adrien a decent gift it seemed. She smiled a little, then caught sight of the name stitched in one of the seams. She quickly folded it up again and handed it back to Adrien. 

“It’s lovely.”

It was a few days before Jeanne could finally thank the true giver of the scarf. She was at school to pick Adrien up when she saw her target walking her friend away. 

“Marinette!” Jeanne’s voice stopped the younger girl cold in her tracks. She turned around slowly, forcing herself to smile. What could Jeanne possible want with her?

“H-Hey Jeanne.” She stammered. “What’s up?”

“I wanted to say thank you.”

Marinette blinked. “For what?”

“I know you made the scarf Adrien’s so crazy about.” Jeanne said, smiling. “Father always gives him the same stupid ballpoint pen every year, so there’s no way he’d suddenly have Nathalie get such a nice scarf. Not to mention, Marinette is stitched on one of the seams. He hasn’t seen it yet, so I thought I’d just let him live the dream for a little longer.” She glanced back at her brother. “This is the first time I’ve seen him so happy since...” She shook her head. “It’s been awhile since he’s gotten this excited over anything. So thank you.” She kissed Marinette’s cheek and was suddenly gone, running back to the limousine, back to her glass cage.


	3. Mr. Pigeon

When Jeanne had woken up that morning, she’d expected the day to be boring beyond belief. Adrien’s school was holding a design contest and since Gabriel couldn’t be bothered to actually get his ass out of the house, Jeanne and Nathalie had to go and hold his tablet so he could judge the competition from home. She’d been instructed on what to wear, say, and do while completing the aforementioned task, just like every other day of her life. She had been finishing her makeup when the beating of wings startled her. True, it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence to have pigeons nesting outside her window, but this sounded like a lot more than usual. She opened the drapes and was greeted by the sight of thousands of pigeons flying past her floor to ceiling windows. 

“N-Nathalie? You see them too, right?”

“The birds? Yes. We all see them.” Nathalie’s voice echoed from the hallway. “What kind of supervillain controls pigeons for Heaven’s sake?” Jeanne snickered. It did seem like a bit of a lame power. Then she realized something. 

“Nathalie? Did Adrien leave the house with his allergy medication?” 

There was silence. 

“You should take it to him.” Nathalie finally said. Jeanne nodded, going into Adrien’s room to grab the medicine. She noted he’d borrowed some of her clothes again, judging from the shirts and skirts strewn on the floor, and rolled her eyes. She kept telling him not to do that. But those particular items were getting too small for her. Maybe she’d let him have them. She made it halfway to the door before Gabriel caught her. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” He asked. “We have a contest to prepare for.”

“I just wanted to bring Adrien his meds.” She said, immediately adopting a smaller posture. “I got worried because there are birds everywhere.”

“We’re going to see him soon enough. Go back to your room and finish getting ready.” Gabriel waved a hand dismissively and turned away. “Adrien’s allergy isn’t that severe.”

“But with so many birds, it could end up like that petting zoo.” Jeanne was willing to plead if she had to. She was being unreasonable, she knew that, but she didn’t want to risk the possibility that this could end up being deadly to her little brother. 

“It won’t take long, will it?” Gabriel asked, refusing to turn around.

“It won’t, I promise.”

“Go then.”

“Thank you, father.” She slipped out the door. 

Actually locating her brother turned out to be more difficult than she’d anticipated. He, of course, wasn’t at school due to having to go deal with the akuma attack. To find him, she needed to find the villain first. The problem was that she didn’t know where the villain could possibly be. Her first instinct was to go to where the highest volume of pigeons was, but that was hard to figure out just by looking at them, and the damned things were literally everywhere! Never before had Jeanne Agreste had a stronger desire to begin murdering pigeons. Maybe this was how cats felt. She stopped, wiping her forehead. A great deal of concealer came off with the sweat. Well, the contest wasn’t for another few hours. She’d have time to clean herself up by then. Just a minor setback, she assured herself. It was then that she caught sight of a familiar cat-suited boy. 

“About fucking time.” She muttered, heading in that direction. The Grand Palais laid before her, and she was certain her brother would be inside with Ladybug and that damn pigeon man. Looking around, Jeanne made sure no one else was there before she entered. However, the second she stepped foot inside the building, all Hell broke loose. A sneeze from Chat had alerted the pigeon villain to their presence and he was currently unleashing the full force of his feathered minions on the superhero team. For a brief moment, Jeanne panicked, before ducking off to the side close to where Chat was fighting. 

“Pst! Adrien!” She said in a loud whisper. Chat looked around, trying to locate the sound of the unfamiliar voice. It only took him a minute before he spotted his sister hiding behind the vending machines. 

“What are you doing here?!” He hissed, shielding her as he drove off the birds with his staff. 

“You left the house without your meds.” She held out the bottle. “The city’s covered in birds. I got worried.”

“You need to leave, Jeanne.”

“I ran halfway across Paris to give you these so you better take your goddamn medicine!” She shoved them toward him. 

“I’m in the middle of something here!” He jerked his head in the direction of the birds and Ladybug. 

“Just take them and I’ll leave!”

“Jeanne, I don’t have time for this!”

“Take the medicine then!”

“My allergy isn’t even that bad.”

“Uh huh. Remember that time at the petting zoo when your throat swelled up so much you could barely breathe?” She pursed her lips and cocked an eyebrow. 

“I was six! Are you never going to let me live that down?!”

“I want to keep you safe!”

“God, you’re as bad as Dad!” The second the words left his lips, he knew he’d crossed a line. Whatever Jeanne had been preparing to say died in her throat. She just stared at him, mouth open just enough that he could see the tips of her front teeth. Then her face was set in stony resignation. 

“I’ll be going then.” She said, voice soft. “Have fun saving the world.” Every fibre of his being was screaming that he needed to apologize, but he didn’t. He was still too angry. So he turned away and went back to fighting. 

Jeanne ran home in tears. Halfway up the driveway, her heel broke and she plummeted onto the concrete path. Skin flaked off her hands, knees, cheeks, blood welling up where the skin had been broken. She yanked off her heels and stormed inside. Nathalie didn’t ask, and neither did her father. For once she was glad for the lack of attention. Jeanne threw off her clothes and took a shower, washing away the blood and first layer of makeup. She pounded at the shower walls until her hands hurt too much to continue. She got out, got dressed again, then put on her smile. She wore gloves to conceal the scratches on her hands, thick tights to cover her skinned knees, concealer to hide blotchy skin and bloodied cheek. 

“Jeanne? Are you ready?” Nathalie knocked tentatively on the door. 

“Yes. Just give me a moment.” The eldest Agreste child put on a new pair of pumps and followed Nathalie out to the car. The ride to Collège Françoise Dupont wasn’t a long one. Nathalie and Jeanne sat in silence during this time, both avoiding eye contact. 

“Did you find Adrien?” Nathalie asked after a few minutes. 

“He was busy.” Jeanne answered. “Schoolwork and all that. I didn’t want to disturb him.” Nathalie nodded. She was certain there had been some kind of argument, but she knew better than to press the conversation. The car arrived shortly after, the two women exiting and ascending the steps into the school. Nathalie did the introductions, Jeanne standing directly beside her, looking just as perfect as she was supposed to as she turned on the tablet. Adrien had appeared from a side entrance. Jeanne didn’t make eye contact with him.

“Hello, Mr. Damocles,” Nathalie said, hands folded behind her back. “I’m Mr Agreste’s executive assistant Nathalie, and I’m sure you know his daughter Jeanne.”

“Hello, ladies.” The principal replied, glancing over their shoulders and fidgeting a bit. “Pardon me, but where is Mr Agreste?”

“I’m here.” Jeanne turned the tablet so her father’s face was clearly visible. 

Damocles smiled. “Ah, uh, hello Mr Agreste. Welcome to our school.”

Gabriel nodded curtly. “Adrien, take your sister and Nathalie around.”

“Yes, Father.” Adrien began to walk, Nathalie and Jeanne falling into step behind him. They were the perfect pictures of dutiful children, Adrien leading the way and Jeanne holding the tablet and obeying her father’s instructions perfectly. The whole contest was going smoothly. Until that is, the group got to Chloé and Marinette’s hats. Jeanne’s shoulders slumped. Every day she became more and more disappointed with that girl. Chloé was better than this. 

“Um, hi Mr Agreste.” Chloé said, batting her eyelashes. “I'm Chloé Bourgeois. You know my father, André Bourgeois, the mayor?”

“Yes, we remember you Chloé.” Jeanne forced a weak smile before moving on. As soon as Gabriel was shown Marinette’s hat, he knew something was amiss. 

“Jeanne, turn the tablet back to Miss Bourgeois’ hat.” He instructed. His daughter did as she was told. 

“Is this a joke?” His tone turned even colder. 

“No fair! Marinette copied my design! It's scandalous, how could you do that?” Chloé began to sob in a way that Jeanne was certain was fake. She had seen the younger girl do it enough times to be able to distinguish the difference. 

“Adrien, hold this.” She passed the tablet off to Adrien. 

“I apologize for the situation Mr Agreste, but I can prove that this derby hat is MY original design.” Marinette said, the perfect picture of calm. 

“Go ahead.” Gabriel was only slightly distracted by the fact that his daughter was picking up and examining the hat Chloé had submitted. 

“Um, everything on my derby hat is handmade.” Even while distracted, Gabriel’s stare was intimidating as ever, causing Marinette to stutter just a bit. “From the embroidery to the weaving of the band, to the stitching of the brim. All done by myself. And last, there's a special design element, that only the true designer knows about. I signed mine.” Jeanne turned over the hat, revealing Marinette’s name stitched into the brim. Knowing she had been caught, Chloé fled the scene, crying for her father.

“I need to have a talk with her.” Jeanne muttered. 

“But not today?” Adrien whispered. 

“No, not today.” It had been a long day. She didn’t need to have to deal with the reaction she was certain Chloé would have. Instead, she watched and listened as her father praised Marinette for her design. 

“Congratulations on your demonstration, Miss Marinette.” Gabriel said. “You’re the winner.”

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Marinette squealed. 

“Adrien will wear your derby hat in our next advertising campaign.”

“Awesome job, Marinette.” Adrien said as he began to put on the hat. However, he erupted into a sneezing fit. 

“He’s allergic to feathers.” Jeanne said, producing the bottle of medication. Adrien sneezed again as he took it from her. 

“Gesundheit.” Marinette couldn’t help but giggle a little. 

“Thanks.” Adrien smiled sheepishly. 

 

The ride home was quiet, the siblings slumped over each other, completely worn out. Jeanne went straight to her room to wash off her makeup and change into more comfortable clothes. 

“Hey...” Adrien knocked tentatively on her door frame. “I’m really sorry about what I said.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Jeanne pulled on a sweatshirt. “You were busy.”

“You don’t have to make excuses.”

“I’m not.”

“Then accept my apology.” He folded his arms. 

She laughed and turned around, flopping down on her bed. “Fine. Apology accepted, little brother.” 

“So...Did something happen after you left?” He walked in and sat down next to her. “Nathalie said you came home crying, and you’ve got scratches all over.” When Nathalie had told him, he’d feared the worst. He’d crossed a line and it was possible his sister had tried to repeat the action that had brought on her imposed isolation. 

“You know those awful Gucci stilettos Father insisted I buy?” She asked. “The yellow ones. The heel broke and I fell onto the driveway. It was nothing big.”

“Oh.” He smiled nervously. “I thought you’d...I don’t know.”

“You thought I’d tried to kill myself again.” Right to the point.

“.......Yeah.”

“I’m not going to do that.” She pulled him close with one arm. “I can’t just leave you alone. Not with everything you’re going through.” He closed his eyes and breathed in her perfume. It was flowery today, with hints of strawberry.

“Thanks.” He whispered. 

“I just...It feels like everything is out of my control.” She said, sighing deeply.  “I want to keep you safe, but I know you need to keep Paris safe. And being cooped up here is driving me crazy! This is not helping me. I need to go out. I need to live my life.”

“I understand.”

“I know you do.”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, sis.”

They fell asleep lying on her bed, hugging one another. 


	4. Copycat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The fight is based off ones I've had with my sister. I once kicked a hole in her door because we were mad at each other.

Jeanne was ecstatic. It was the day of Théo’s big exhibition and she was going to the big unveiling as Théo’s special guest. Gabriel had agreed to let her go and she was so excited she could barely contain herself. She wore a flowery purple summer dress and white flats, curling her hair in a way that was reminiscent of her mother. No one in the household was quite sure how to address her sudden burst of happiness. Even Gabriel was left without a response. It had been a long time since he’d seen his daughter this happy about anything. He dealt with these feelings the same way he dealt with all his feelings. Working. Jeanne didn’t even care. She skipped out to the car, Nathalie following behind her.

“Call me when it’s over. We’ll come pick you up.” Nathalie said as they rode.

“Of course.” Jeanne pulled her phone out of her purse, waving it slightly to prove she had it. “I’m responsible, aren’t I?”

“It’s not you I’m worried about.” The corners of Nathalie’s mouth threatened to twitch up. “It’s your father’s overreaction.”

“Don’t worry. Everything will be fine.”

In retrospect, that was not something she should have said. But when she showed up at the unveiling, everything was fine. Théo and Mayor Bourgeois stood next to the statue, reporters forming a large crowd around them.

“Théo!” Jeanne ran over and hugged him. “It’s been so long!”

“I’m so glad you could make it.” Théo said, grinning and pulling back so he could look at her. “I think this is my best work yet.”

“I don’t doubt it, judging from those bags under your eyes. What are they, Gucci?”

“Are they that bad?” Théo’s face fell.

“No no. They’re fine.” Jeanne said quickly. “You look great.”

“Miss Agreste!” Mayor Bourgeois peered past Théo. “I didn’t know you knew Mr Barbot!”

“We’re friends.” She said. “We met at one of my art shows and bonded over both being art geeks.” She laughed and gave Théo a hug. “He’s the best sculptor I know. He has an incredible grasp of human anatomy.”

“Well, it’s nice to hear such a glowing endorsement.” Mayor Bourgeois nodded and went back to looking at the crowd.

“You didn’t need to say that in front of the mayor.” Théo said, face already turning bright red.

“What? It’s true.” Jeanne punched his arm playfully. Praising those she loved came naturally. They were such wonderful people, how could she not?

“Miss Agreste, we meet again.” She looked up to see Chat crouched on the base of the statue.

“Chat Noir.” She feigned a surprised reaction. “You remember my name. I’m impressed.”

“How could I forget the name of the girl I keep having to save?”

“You know him?” Théo whispered.

“Well, not exactly.” Jeanne forced herself to smile. “I’m just a damsel in distress during a lot of attacks. I’m sure he’s long since gotten tired of me.”

“Nonsense.” Chat grinned. “Ladybug and I are always happy to help those in need.”

“Um, speaking of Ladybug,” Théo pulled a photo from his pocket. “Where is she?”

“Don't worry about Ladybug. I'm sure she'll be here any minute. I can handle this situation alone for now. I'm the one in charge anyway, you know.”

“Really? I thought you two were a team.” Her brother was beginning to get a swelled head.

“It's just that, I wanted to ask her to autograph this photo.” Théo said, smiling softly at the photo. It was a cutout from a newspaper. “She's amazing. She's so brave and smart, the way she always saves everyone...” Chat glared at the picture. Jeanne had half a mind to grab him by the ear and give him a good scolding.

“Perhaps the ceremony should commence.” Mayor Bourgeois suggested. “It might bring her here faster.”

“Please, just one minute more, Mayor Bourgeois.” Théo begged. “She’s going to come. I can feel it.”

But she didn’t. Jeanne gnawed at her lip as the time passed and the crowd grew increasingly restless. Chat was not helping, constantly trying to talk himself up and convince everyone he and Ladybug were an item. She was definitely going to chew him out for this later. She had told him to be on his best behaviour for this! He had to know how much this meant to her friend. Eventually, Mayor Bourgeois got fed up and just started the ceremony.

“It’s only proper for Paris to pay homage to those who protect us from evil.” He announced, unveiling the statue. “Ladybug and Chat Noir!” The crowd of reporters and fans clapped, everyone clamouring to get closer, whether to get a good picture or just to get closer to the local celebrities. Théo withdrew, staring longingly at his picture of Ladybug.

“I’m sure she wanted to be here.” Jeanne said, pulling him close. “Something must have kept her.” Théo just nodded half-heartedly.

“These statues are amazing.” Chat whistled, looking up at them with his hands on his hips. “One thing’s slightly off though. I’m actually taller than Ladybug.”

“This is not the time, Adrien.” Jeanne hissed.

“Ladybug didn't show up. I just wanted to express my adoration for her. Let her know that everything I had went into her statue.” Théo wasn’t even listening to Chat. “I'm sure if she took a little time to get to know me, she would see how much we have in common. Our devotion to the things we love.”

“She’ll love it, I just know it.” Jeanne patted his back. “It’s an amazing statue like Chat Noir said.” She then closed her eyes and prayed to whatever gods there were that Chat did not make this situation even worse because of his petty jealousy. Théo was feeling bad enough, he did not need salt poured into the wound.

“Hey, don’t mean to burst your bubble,” For fuck’s sake. “But you know, Ladybug and me, we’re a thing, you know?”

“Really?” Théo looked up at him, on the verge of being completely and utterly crushed.

“Yeah, we’re like this.” Chat smirked and crossed his fingers. And that was it. Théo’s dejection turned to anger. He turned and stormed away, Ladybug’s photo clenched in his fist. Jeanne started to run after him, then stopped. There was nothing she could do to make this better. She walked back to the statue where Chat was smiling to himself and whistling.

“Home. Now.” She growled. “I need to have a talk with you.” She was shaking from head to toe, teeth clenched.

 

Nathalie was afraid to ask what had happened when the limousine arrived to pick up the Agreste siblings. Jeanne looked positively livid, while Adrien seemed somewhere between angry and scared. As with many things in her job, Nathalie decided it was better to simply say nothing. This was something that the Agreste children needed to work out between one another. She’d sincerely regretted the last time she’d tried to intervene in a fight when Jeanne was this upset. Just in case though, she made sure to remove any and all objects Jeanne could use to hurt herself before the eldest Agreste got to her room. Once Jeanne and Adrien were alone she turned on her brother, positively demonic.

“Half of Paris has a crush on Ladybug! Even Chloé fucking Bourgeois has a crush on her! Why couldn’t you just let it go this one time?!” She screamed. “I told you how much this meant to Théo! Why did you have to ruin it because of your stupid crush?!”

“It’s not stupid!” Adrien yelled back. “And look, I wasn’t thinking, I’m sorry. You know how I get when I’m like that.”

“That’s not an excuse! You’re not some hormonal idiot who can’t control himself! I know you’re perfectly capable showing restraint! You’ve shown restraint every time you’ve ever been with Ladybug! You can keep your mouth shut! WHY DIDN’T YOU DO IT THIS TIME?!”

“You wouldn’t be yelling at me if I’d said it to Chloé!”

“This isn’t Chloé we’re talking about!” Jeanne slammed her hand down on her vanity, starting to cry. “Théo is the only friend I have! I can’t lose him because of you!”

“You’re not going to lose him!” Adrien said. “You’re overreacting, Jeanne. You seriously think he’s going to blame you for this?”

“I don’t know! I just know you ruined something he worked on for months! There were days he didn’t sleep and I had to call him to remind him to take a break, just like you do when I’m working on a project!” Jeanne gestured to the paintings that lined her room. Adrien felt guilt beginning to tug at his heart but quickly pushed it away.

“He’ll get over it! This isn’t a big deal!” He said, turning away and slamming the door behind him.

“You need to take responsibility for your actions, Adrien!” Jeanne yelled.

“I can’t hear you!” Adrien yelled back, the lock clicking. Jeanne stood before the door, her mouth gaping open. Had he just locked the door on her?

“Adrien Agreste, don’t you lock that door on me!” She began banging on the door. The commotion was so loud it drew the attention of Nathalie and the Gorilla. The Gorilla dragged the girl away from the door, kicking and screaming, while Nathalie tried to calm her down. The whole thing ended with Jeanne wrapped in a blanket burrito, crying quietly.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Nathalie asked. Jeanne shook her head. So Nathalie left her. Jeanne stayed in her bed, turning on the radio to listen to some classical music. The station was doing a Beethoven hour, thankfully. She sighed and settled into her covers, letting the piano wash over her. Für Elise always calmed her down. She took deep breaths, focusing only on the sound of her breathing. As much as she hated to admit it, Adrien was right. She had overreacted. She’d just wanted this to go well for Théo. He’d been working so hard. Suddenly she felt her phone buzz. She dug it out, frowning. Who on Earth could be texting her? Strangely, the message was from the Gorilla.

_There’s a duplicate Chat and Adrien went off to confront him. You might want to go get him._

Jeanne sat up, her heart sinking. Her first instinct was that the duplicate was Théo, transformed by Hawkmoth into some kind of copycat. She decided to run with that instinct. After all, she couldn’t think of anyone else Adrien had humiliated that day. So she’d overreacted, but she’d been right to be angry. She put on more sensible shoes and ran to Théo’s studio. She could see Ladybug and Chat hopping the roofs in the distance, trailed by police cars. Never had she wanted to say “I told you so” more. She arrived before the police cars, somehow, but after the superheroes. Jeanne peered inside, her heart pounding. Chat was trapped in chains, while the lookalike stood before him. She assumed Théo, or the thing that used to be Théo, was taunting him. She knew just by body posture, the way each of them moved, which one was which. Even without his lollipop stick Théo had to chew on something, so he had resorted to his lip for now. She couldn’t make out any of the words being said and part of her wanted to stay and watch, see her brother’s lie unravel all over him. She’d told him to let it go, hadn’t she?

“Snap out of it!” She hit the side of her head. “You’re not a villain. You’re here to stop this.” She ducked away from the window and ran through the back door.

“Stop!” Before either of the superheroes knew what was happening Jeanne had put herself between them and Copycat. “He’s my friend!” Both her brother and Copycat were looking a little beat up, so she was assuming she’d missed some kind of fight.

“Miss, please step aside.” Ladybug said. “He’s a criminal. We need to deal with him.”

“He’s my friend!” Jeanne repeated. “I can fix this!”

“Jeanne, this is no place for civilians.” Chat said. There was anger in his eyes, perhaps leftover from his fight, but also fear. She was going to get hurt doing this and they both knew it.

“I can fix this.” She had lost most of her conviction, struggling to combat the fresh wave of tears.

“I don’t need your pity.” Copycat growled, batting her aside. She went flying to the side, landing in a heap among Théo’s sculpting equipment. Everything went black.

 

When she awoke, paramedics were shining a flashlight in her eyes and asking her how many fingers they were holding up. It took a few minutes for them to decide she wasn’t in any immediate danger, but they still sent her home with an order that she needed bed rest in case she had a concussion. Nathalie tucked her in and her father even came to make sure she was alright.

“What on Earth were you thinking?” He demanded.

“I don’t know.” She answered honestly, looking down at her lap. “I didn’t want Théo to get hurt.” Gabriel sighed.

“Be more careful.” He said. “Please. I don’t know what I’d do if I lost you.” Jeanne smiled weakly. So he did care.

“I’ll be careful, I promise.”

Gabriel nodded, doing a bit of fidgeting with his hands. “I should get back to work.” And just like that, he was gone again. Jeanne laid back down in bed, staring at the ceiling. Of course he’d go right back to burying himself in his work. At least he’d come. She felt her phone buzz again. A text from Adrien this time.

_I’m going to the movies with Nino. There’s a documentary he wants to see. I’ll be home later. I’m really sorry. You can yell at me all you want when I get home. You were right._

Somehow, this admission didn’t make her feel better. She texted back that she accepted his apology and she hoped he enjoyed the movie. Then she turned her phone off and went to sleep.


	5. Things Go Wrong

Somehow, Jeanne hadn’t actually gotten a concussion. She assumed this was due to Ladybug’s Miraculous Ladybug fix-it tool. She was on her feet in days, although she did have a nasty bruise on the side of her head. She was fully recovered, just in time for Gabriel’s annual charity gala. Both Agreste siblings had forgotten it was coming up, due to obvious superhero reasons. Normally the charity gala wasn’t a problem for either of them. It was just a party with lots of cameras where they had to smile and talk with people for an entire night. But now that Adrien was a superhero....Things were a little more complicated. Chat Noir was supposed to go on patrol that night. Ladybug would think something was wrong if he didn’t show up. Adrien was scared. He was petrified to be honest. How was he supposed to slip away with all the attention? As usual, big sister was there. 

“Don’t worry.” Jeanne said as she watched her brother pace the length of her room. “I’ve got a plan.” Adrien stopped and stared at her. Things had been rather strained between the two of them since the Copycat incident. 

“A...plan?” He echoed uncertainly. 

“Yes, a plan.” His sister stood, the dress their father had picked for her trailing beautifully on the floor. “Leave it all to me.” She grinned, but he could see that she was afraid as well. 

“Thanks.” He mumbled. “You’re a lifesaver.”

“What are siblings for?” She fixed his bowtie and smoothed down a cowlick. Adrien nodded, avoiding her eyes. 

“What are you going to do?” 

“I’ll take your place.” She said. “Father’s treating me extra carefully since I’m recovering from an injury. He won’t be surprised if I say I need to lay down for a little. I can go on patrol then come back and make another appearance. No one will know I’m gone.”

“Plagg?” Adrien roused the little kwami from his sleep in his sock drawer. “Would that work?”

“I wasn’t paying attention.” Plagg said. “Run it by me again.” Jeanne couldn’t help but laugh and repeated her plan. Plagg listened from the sock drawer. 

“Yeah...I guess it would.” He said. “But, listen, you might get some residual bad luck from using the Miraculous.”

“Our luck is terrible anyway.” Jeanne said, waving a hand dismissively. 

“Well, if you think you can handle it.” Plagg darted back to his sock drawer. 

“We can.” Jeanne assured him. Plagg just shrugged and sunk back into the socks. 

Jeanne and Adrien entered the ballroom together. Their father was waiting. He was doing his best impression of someone with extreme diarrhoea while talking to the reporters. 

“Ah, speaking of your children,” the reporter grinned, looking past Gabriel. “So good to see you both.”

“Good evening.” Jeanne curtsied. “It’s good to see you as well.” Adrien mimicked the gesture, not really saying anything. The siblings answered questions alongside their father for a few minutes before Gabriel finally got tired of talking to the man and sent him away. 

“You should go rest, Jeanne.” Gabriel said, abruptly turning to his daughter. 

“Are you sure? You don’t need me to be here?” Jeanne asked, looking innocently up at him. 

“You’re still recovering. Go.”

Jeanne gave her brother a comforting look and went back upstairs to Adrien’s room. He’d left the ring on his bedside table. She took it, and Plagg, into Adrien’s bathroom and locked the door. 

“Plagg, I need you to behave.” She whispered. She put on the ring. Plagg didn’t say anything as he dove into the ring. She closed her eyes, then opened them again. The world was tinted green, and she felt something curling around her ankles. She looked in the mirror. An athletic young man looked back at her. He resembled an older Adrien, with real ears and a tail. 

“Incredible.” She whispered, leaning in close to see her reflection more clearly. This would definitely work. Hopefully Ladybug wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the two Chats, or she’d be in big trouble. She opened the window and crept out. Ladybug was waiting exactly where Adrien said she always waited. 

“You’re late, Kitty.” Ladybug said, turning as Chat landed. “I almost thought you weren’t going to show up.”

“And miss spending time with you, my lady?” Chat said, making a horrified expression. “I’d rather give up all my nine lives. You’re purrfect company.” Ladybug rolled her eyes. 

“Come on, Kitty. We have work to do.”

Chat crept back into the bathroom. Everything was as it had been when Jeanne had left. The ring came off and Jeanne was there in her dress. She left the bathroom and put the ring back on Adrien’s bedside table. Everything had gone perfectly. 

“Now be careful, kid.” Plagg said as he returned to the sock drawer. 

“I’ll be fine.” Jeanne leaned down to kiss his head. Plagg didn’t say anything else, burrowing further into the socks. Jeanne sighed and closed the drawer. Okay, so that conversation was over. She headed back towards the ballroom, trying to shake off the worry. The bad luck with Adrien hadn’t been too terribly bad. Surely she’d be alright. Then she reached the top of the stairs and tripped on the hem of her dress. The stairs didn’t even go that far down, but she felt like she was falling forever.

“Oooww.” She muttered, getting to her feet. Oh, she was definitely going to have a concussion after this. She got up and headed into the ballroom. The party was still going on, and it looked as though she hadn’t been missed. Multiple people gave her strange looks as she passed. Did she look that bad? Her father and Adrien were talking with a few reporters. She began to stagger a bit as she reached them. Why was she feeling so lightheaded all of a sudden? Adrien turned at her footsteps and paled. 

“Jeannette, are you okay?” He whispered. “You’re bleeding.” She reached up to wipe her nose and her hand came away wet with blood. Her nose did hurt. Gabriel turned to see his eldest child fold and hit the ground, blood trickling from her nose.

“Someone call an ambulance!” He barked. 

“Father, I’m fine.” She said, trying to get to her feet. “Just feeling a bit lightheaded.”

“We should take you to the hospital.” Adrien knelt beside her. “Check you out, make sure you’re alright.”

“Okay, fine, alright.” Jeanne let her brother help her to her feet. Gabriel stormed out in front of them, yelling at everyone who got in his way. Nathalie fell into step beside them. 

“Are you alright?” She asked. 

“I fell down the stairs, maybe broke my nose.” Jeanne said, waving her free hand. “It’s not a big deal.” 

“You might have got a concussion.” Adrien said. 

“I’m probably fine.” Jeanne said as Adrien helped her into the car. And so they headed off to the hospital. 

 

Jeanne stayed at the hospital for a few days. As it turned out, she did indeed have a concussion, and although her nose wasn’t broken, it was severely bruised. She kept insisting she was fine, kept saying she wanted to go home. But Gabriel, ever one to overreact, insisted she stay for a week. And since no one knew why Jeanne had simply vanished, people began to overreact as well. 

“What happened to her?” Chloé called Adrien in tears. “Is she alright?” 

“She’s okay, don’t worry.” Adrien had stepped out of Jeanne’s hospital room to answer the call. 

“Is that Chloé?” Jeanne yelled. “Tell her I’m fine!”

“She says she’s fine.” Adrien said. 

“Then...They why did she vanish from the gala?” Chloé asked, sniffling. 

“She tripped on her dress and fell down the stairs.” Adrien explained. “Everything is fine. Just a little bit of bad luck.” 

“When will she be coming back?”

“As soon as Father stops overreacting and lets us leave.” Adrien said, glancing over his shoulder to make sure Gabriel wasn’t listening. “It’ll be alright. I promise.” 

“I want to see her when she gets back.” Chloé said. “I’m giving her a big welcome-home party.”

“I’ll tell her, I promise.” 

The rest of Jeanne’s time at the hospital was uneventful. Marinette showed up once or twice with cookies, which were heartily accepted. Jeanne slept a lot, so Adrien mostly did homework when he was at the hospital. Plagg did feel rather bad since he’d caused this. But both Jeanne and Adrien assured him that it was alright. He couldn’t have anticipated this. 


	6. The Pharaoh

Jeanne wasn’t supposed to be out of bed yet and they both knew it. But she could be surprisingly persuasive when it came to her little brother. There was an Egyptian exhibit at the Louvre and Jeanne wanted to see it more than anything else. She had dressed in a cat-themed ensemble; cat ear headband, oversized pink sweater with a cat face on it, cat paw tights, cat choker, as well as a black skirt and black flats. The outfit covered most of her bandages and her long free-flowing hair distracted from the bruises on her face. 

“Jeanne, this is a bad idea.” Adrien said, following after her as she strode down the stairs. “Father will be furious!”

“It’s just a trip to the museum.” Jeanne said. “Nathalie told me it was okay as long as you stayed with me and got me out of there if things got serious.”

“Does she mean-” Adrien’s heart jumped to his throat.

“She said no vigorous physical activity and no letting me be around if there are akuma attacks.” Jeanne brushed him off, still calm. “So if you have to transform she wants you to bring me home first.”

“So she knows?”

“The only one who doesn’t know at this point is Father.”

“I thought I was careful!” Adrien groaned. 

“You were, but with the level of security your father demands, one of us was bound to find out sooner or later.” Nathalie was waiting at the bottom of the stairs. “I’m sorry, Adrien.” He didn’t know whether to be scared by this or relieved. He decided to be relieved. Sneaking around Nathalie had caused him endless stress. Knowing she was in his corner made him feel better. Jeanne’s reaction had been less calm, but then again, she had found out at a less than optimal time. She’d reacted better than expected given that Nathalie and the Gorilla had informed her while she’d been having a panic attack. 

“Oh! Did you see that video Alya posted on the Ladyblog?” Adrien asked once they were in the car. “Ladybug might go to my school!”

“Well, I did see the video.” Jeanne leaned back in her seat. “There is a strong possibility that she goes to your school. But on the other hand, half the high schools in Paris use that textbook. Just saying.”

“Wouldn’t it be cool if she did go to my school though?” Adrien persisted. “I might even know her!”

“Given how quickly she shows up to the akuma attacks, yeah, she probably does go to your school.” Jeanne gave up playing devil’s advocate. Adrien continued to come up with theories for the rest of the car ride, completely distracting him from the fact that his sister was not supposed to be out of the house yet. Jeanne just sat back, glad to finally be mobile again. Being stuck in that hospital bed had been awful, not to mention all the complications that had occurred because of the curse still on her. Plagg had said it would wear off on its own, but not how long it would take. Still, she was going to see some great Egyptian art now, and pay homage to the great cat goddess Bast. 

“Be home before dark.” Nathalie told the siblings as they exited the car. 

“We will!” Jeanne said, bounding inside. 

“Slow down!” How was she moving that fast while still injured? Adrien ran after her. Jeanne practically glided through the Louvre. This was her true home, surrounded by art and the dappled sunshine that poured in through the glass exterior. She sighed deeply, savouring the air. It always felt different here. 

“So...” Adrien stopped behind her, breathing heavily. “Which way is the exhibit?” 

“Mm...This way.” Jeanne said, pointing to the signs. It was easy to find the exhibit, and Jeanne was in absolute bliss, pointing to everything and rattling off all the knowledge she knew. She stopped in front of one mural and frowned. 

“Hey, Plagg?”

“Mm?” The kwami popped out of Adrien’s shirt pocket. “What? What’s going on?”

“That.” Jeanne pointed to the mural again. “Is that one of your past wearers?” The mural was mostly hieroglyphics, but there were a few pictures, one depicting a figure that looked surprisingly like Ladybug, and another that looked quite Chat Noir-esque. 

“Oh yeah. Him.” Plagg yawned. “Yeah, he was one of my kittens. Nice kid. His mom was a devotee of Bast, so I was treated really well there.”

“Bet they didn’t have Camembert.” Adrien said. Jeanne rolled her eyes and patted her brother’s shoulder. He was trying to one-up a dead Egyptian kid. 

“True. But they were nice.” Plagg stared wistfully up at the mural. “I really liked living with them.” There was a quiet mournfulness to him that neither Agreste sibling had ever witnessed before.

“Everyone dies in the end, right?” Jeanne said, forcing a smile. “It’s part of life.”

“That’s what Tikki always says. Doesn’t make it any easier.” Plagg burrowed back into Adrien’s pocket. Jeanne and Adrien looked at one another, then at the mural. There were no words. They continued through the exhibit. Thankfully, a distraction soon came along. The two were about to turn the corner when Jeanne stopped. 

“Ugh.” Jeanne wrinkled her nose. 

“What? What’s going on?” Adrien asked, trying to peer past his sister. 

“Jalil Kubdel.” Jeanne said. “I took a history class with him once. He’s obsessed with Egyptian history, but he always reads the wrong sources and his facts are all wrong. He’s still at it, I see.” She cleared her throat. “Hey, asshole! Nefertiti was Tutankhamen’s stepmom!”

“Jeanne!” Jeanne was dragged behind the corner by Adrien before Jalil could see her. 

“I think you’re high on the pain meds.” Adrien said, looking around. “We should go home. This was a bad idea. I should never have snuck you out.”

“He has no respect for history. And we just got here!.”

“I don’t care. You’re high on pain meds. Now let’s go.”

“We should stick around.” Plagg snickered. “I want to see your sister yell at people more.” At least he seemed better.

“We have an image to protect!” Adrien hissed back. “She can’t just go yelling at people outside the house.” The last few weeks had been stressful enough, he did not need Gabriel chewing them both out about causing a scene here. 

“You two need to live a little!”

“Adrien’s right.” Jeanne fiddled with a chunk of her hair. “Sorry. I wasn’t thinking.”

“I thought you were back here.” Jalil was suddenly next to them. 

Jeanne forced a smile. “Um, hey Jalil.”

“Hello, Jeanne.” He said flatly. 

“How’s it going?”

“Not great.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.”

“What happened?” Adrien asked. 

“My father won’t let me touch Tutankhamen’s sceptre.” Jalil said, looking at the ground. “I know the legends are true! I can use it to bring people back to life!”

“Wouldn’t your father lose his job if you did that?”

“That’s what he said too!” Jalil stamped his foot. “You’re all the same!” He stormed away. Jeanne and Adrien exchanged a confused look. 

“Oh, dear gods I hope he doesn’t get akumatized.” Jeanne groaned, trying not to talk too loud. 

“Gods?”

“Ancient Egyptian gods.” Jeanne folded her arms, almost smug. 

“Um, okay. We should still get home.” Adrien tried gently to start pushing her in the direction of the exit. “If an akuma attack happens, you are in no shape to be around.” Jeanne sighed and let herself be pushed. She hated that he had a point. 

“There’s no if here, it’s a matter of when.” She said. “Let’s hope you can get me out before Jalil gets a butterfly to the chest.” They didn’t even get to the front entrance before a strange man who looked very much like a sarcophagus come to life stormed in. 

“Sorry bro.” Jeanne whispered. “Go transform. I can take care of myself.”

“The last time I left you alone with an akumatized villain you ended up getting slammed into a wall!”

“That was my fault for provoking him!” 

“I’m not leaving you alone!”

Jeanne took a deep breath and put her hands on her brother’s shoulders. “Adrien. Ladybug needs you, okay? You’re a team. I’ll be fine on my own. I promise.”

“Promise you’ll go right home.” Adrien said, gnawing at his lip. 

“I’ll do my best.”

“Okay.” He made sure Plagg was in his pocket and ran off to find a place to transform. Jeanne took a moment to steady herself and began trying to sneak out. It wasn’t easy, what with Jalil (wait, he was calling himself something else now. The Pharaoh?) blasting everyone into gold time bubbles. Luckily the Pharaoh was headed for the Egyptian exhibit, and the coast was soon clear. Jeanne hobbled over to the front doors, put her hands on the handles. She was so close to getting out. But...She couldn’t. She couldn’t just leave Adrien to face this alone. Who knew what this guy could do to him. Not to mention with Jalil’s less than accurate knowledge of Egyptian history and gods, he might not realize that cats were sacred to Egyptians and just beat the living Hell out of her brother. Her breath caught in her throat and she made a beeline back to the exhibit. Adrien could handle himself, she had told herself that a thousand times before. But with all that had happened, she found herself increasingly anxious when it came to his superhero antics. She came onto the scene to see the Pharaoh walking towards her, Alya slung over her shoulder. He raised his hand, his face switching to that of Thoth. 

Panicking, she blurted out the first thing she could think of. “I am a sacred priestess of Bastet! She of fire! Slayer of the serpent Apophis! Protector of the carriage of her father and the hearth of the home! To harm me is to incur the wrath of my lady!” There was no way that was actually going to work, she said to herself. There was no way Jalil, the Pharaoh, whatever, was actually going to believe that shit. 

“Very well, you shall bless this ceremony.” He picked her up and threw her next to Alya. “It’s so good to see they still have priestesses in this day and age.”

“I can’t believe that worked.” She said, more to herself than anyone else. 

“Girl! That was quick thinking!” Alya held out a fist for Jeanne to fistbump. Jeanne did so, still not completely processing the situation. Adrien was going to kill her for this, if the Pharaoh didn’t kill her first. She kept muttering to herself until she was suddenly put on the ground. 

“Priestess, you may stay here while I prepare the offering.” The Pharaoh announced. Jeanne looked around, noticing that they were both no longer outside and surrounded by mummies. Where had those come from?

“Offering? What offering?” She asked. 

“He’s talking about me!” Alya flailed in the Pharaoh’s grip. 

“Um, your grace,” Jeanne bowed deeply. “Would you mind filling me in on this spell I’m supposed to be blessing?”

“But of course.” She swore he was smiling behind that mask. “I’m fulfilling the spell to bring back my princess. It requires 100 mummies and the offering of a pure soul in order to persuade Ra to bring my love back to the land of the living.” Okay....He really hadn’t been paying any attention in that Egyptian history course. Osiris and Anubis were the people you needed to talk to if you wanted to bring someone back from the land of the dead. But that wasn’t the point. 

“Of course. Of course.” Jeanne forced herself to keep smiling. “Makes perfect sense.” 

“Whoa, back up!” Alya fought a little harder, pointing at the papyrus in the Pharaoh’s hands, maybe in an attempt to distract him. “Who’s that goddess chick in the black spots? There, on your papyrus!”

“Ladybug, my sworn enemy!” The Pharaoh growled. “My nemesis may have kept me from carrying out my ritual 5,000 years ago, but she will not stop Nefertiti from coming back to me this time!”

“Did you say....Ladybug 5,000 years ago?” Alya asked. 

“I wouldn’t take what he’s saying too seriously.” Jeanne whispered. “He has no accurate knowledge of Egyptian history. I know this for a fact because I took a history class with him and he got everything wrong.”

“Enough idle chatter, the ritual must begin!” The Pharaoh began to rise into the air with Alya. “Priestess, deal with Ladybug and Chat Noir!”

“But I cannot hurt a cat.” Jeanne said, innocent as could be. “It is against the code of my lady! She is the protector of all cats!”

“Then just....I don’t know. Keep the mummies in line.” Jeanne snickered internally at the villain’s frustration with her. Soon he was gone to do his ritual and she was left on the ground with the mummies. She wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted her to do. Alya was on the mummies now, wriggling and screaming as they touched her, carrying her towards the Louvre. When had it started lighting up?

“Um...Right this way?” Jeanne made some weird hand motions. She’d seen air traffic controllers before. This had to be like that.

“Right this way.” She motioned the mummies toward the pyramid. Then Chat landed in front of her. The mummies had begun to chant, “Awaken Nefertiti” in a monotone and it was a little creepy if she was being honest. 

“So, you’re here to dispatch the mummies?” Jeanne smiled, hoping he didn’t get angry. Chat looked at her and nodded. 

“We’ll talk later.” He turned to the mummies. “Hey there you bunches of bandages! What do you say we wrap this up?” 

“Seize him!” The Pharaoh roared. The mummies ran after him, still carrying Alya. And so Jeanne was alone again. She sat down, hugging her knees as she watched the battle unfold. She wasn’t even paying attention. Not really. For some reason, she kept thinking back to how she’d felt when she’d worn the ring. When she’d had the power to finally stand up and do something. She hadn’t been useless then. She could have protected Adrien if the need had arisen. But what was she now? Just some stupid girl who got herself into situations she shouldn’t. 

“I told you to go home.” Adrien said, standing over her. 

“I know.”

“Why didn’t you go?”

“I got worried about you.”

He was about to chew her out, about to yell at her, tell her how worried he’d been. But the sight of her slumped against the Louvre wall was enough to let him know she didn’t need a lecture. She was feeling bad enough. He helped her up and called Nathalie. 

They got home and the rest of the evening was uneventful. He got Jeanne to stay in bed and help him study for his test on Ancient Egypt. Plagg even sort of helped. It was nice, spending time with her like that. He only hit a snag when he had to go on patrol. He came in to tell Jeanne goodnight, and that was about to go patrolling and found her staring out her window. 

“That ring....” She said, almost absentmindedly. “The feeling when you wear it, it’s wonderful. Isn’t it?” 

Adrien nodded. “It’s the best I’ve ever felt.”

“I wanted to keep it.”She admitted, never taking her eyes off the window. “I almost didn’t give it back. I finally had the power to protect people. I had freedom.” Adrien touched her hands. In all honesty, he didn’t blame her. There were so many things he could and wanted to say in that moment, but none of them seemed to want to come out. 

“You have to go on patrol now.” She said. “Leave me. I’ll be fine.” He didn’t want to leave her. Not after the third time something had gone wrong in less than two months. But Jeanne had played this game before, and she could play it again She folded her arms and waited. He knew from experience that she could sit like that for nearly half an hour without budging, so finally he got up and left, apologizing under his breath. Once she was sure he was gone she cried. She buried herself in her bed and cried until she was just sobbing, no tears coming out. She hated this, all of it. She hated always having to watch her words, she hated being so powerless, she hated always being the damsel in distress. She hated everything about the cage her life had become. Most of all, she hated herself. Hated how weak she was, how easily she succumbed to the taunts of others, hated the scars that criss-crossed her arms. No wonder Gabriel wasn’t giving her the company. She was a wreck! 

“Why am I so weak?” She muttered, surfacing from under her covers. Her gaze darted around the room before finally landing on the ring her mother had given her for her birthday. Her mother had always told her that she should only put it on when she felt ready. When she was in a good place. 

“Screw it.” She muttered, putting it on. “I need this.” Then she went to sleep. Unbeknownst to her, a little creature had appeared on her pillow. 

“It’s about time.” It said. 


	7. Lady Wifi

Something was wrong with his sister. Adrien knew that from the moment he woke up the next morning. For one thing, Jeanne was in his room at like 7 in the morning, fully dressed, wearing a full face of makeup, and stilettos he knew she couldn’t wear with her busted ankle. Second of all, she was walking around like she hadn’t both fallen down a flight of stairs and been shoved into a wall. There were no bruises on her whatsoever, she was dancing around the room. 

“Oh, good morning~” She smiled when she saw him sitting up. 

“How...You...You’re- You’re still recovering.” He just sat there, staring at her. 

“I just woke up this morning and I felt great!” She spun around. “Isn’t it amazing?” Well, he was pretty sure she hadn’t been akumatized. She looked normal. But there was something strange...

“You’re wearing mom’s ring.” Adrien couldn’t help but smile a little bit. 

“Yeah.” She twisted the ring on her finger. “I was feeling good, so I thought I could wear it.” After their mother’s disappearance, the ring Jeanne had been given for her 15th birthday had been shut in a drawer. She’d only taken it out in the past few months, but even then she hadn’t worn it. On her worst days, it was a reminder of the fact that their mother wasn’t there. 

“Well, I’m really glad you’re feeling better.” He reached out and hugged her. She hugged him back, squeezing tighter than he was used to. 

“You really are feeling good today.” He squeaked. “Um, Jeanette, you’re hurting me.”

“Oh. Sorry.” She flushed and let him go. “You should probably start getting ready.” She kissed his cheek and went back to her room, humming to herself. 

“It’s too early for this.” Plagg whined. “Why is she doing this so early in the morning?”

“Just go back to sleep.” Adrien rolled his eyes and pushed the little kwami back down into the bag he’d been sleeping in. 

Jeanne closed the door behind her, gazing fondly at the ring. She didn’t remember what had happened the other night, and she didn’t care as long as she could continue to feel this good. It felt exactly like when she’d worn the Miraculous. Had she somehow gained one of her own? No, it couldn’t be. She’d worn the ring before and it had never had this effect before. She knew she should be cautious about this, but she didn’t want to question it. She wanted to be happy. She wanted to be okay. Maybe she’d go out today. Just take it easy.

Breakfast was much brighter that morning. She made Adrien laugh, coaxed Nathalie into eating with them for a bit. The small smile this elicited from the older woman didn’t go unnoticed by Jeanne either. Adrien went off to school and Jeanne spent some time looking at the portrait of her mother. When she’d done this in previous days, it had been enough to reduce her to tears. Today, she felt warm, as though her mother was thinking of her, wherever she was. It was a good feeling. She almost could have cried because of how good it felt to finally be happy and content. It had been so long since she’d had a day like this. She skipped back to her room and laid down on her bed, kicking off the heels. She’d opened the windows, fresh air washing over her. She almost felt as though she could lay there all day. Suddenly, though, a voice interrupted her nice time.

“Hey, girlie. We’ve got work to do.” An unidentified voice said. “An akuma’s been created.”

“Excuse me?” Jeanne looked around wildly. 

“Transform.” The voice insisted. “We have to do something about the akuma.” She didn’t even remember what she was told to say. All she felt was the rush as she transformed. She stood tall, feeling better than she had for years. She passed her mirror in the corner of her room and didn’t see herself. The figure in the mirror didn’t seem unfamiliar though. She’d seen his face in her sketchbooks. She could finally do something about her fear and anger. She could help people. She smiled, opening her window. 

“It won’t do for me to be late. Work has to be done, after all.” 

The curtains blew even after the room’s occupant was gone. Nathalie closed the window an hour or so later, wondering where on Earth Jeanne could have gotten off to. It wasn’t uncommon for Jeanne to sneak off on her own. It had happened more than once and Nathalie had learned to simply accept it. The eldest Agreste child always turned up eventually. 

 

Someone was humming Frere Jacques when Lady Wifi stood up. She looked around and found a man crouched above her. The man moved like a big cat, slow and predatory as he jumped down. He wore a white suit reminiscent of something a prince would have. A purple butterfly design was emblazoned on the front of his jacket. His black gloves ended in stainless steel claws, which were currently tapping together as he steepled his fingers. 

“Who are you?” Lady Wifi asked.

“Chat Blanc.” The man bowed deeply. “Isn’t it obvious? The ears, the tail, the colour scheme?”

“It’s not obvious at all.” She snapped back. “Why are you here?”

“To help you, of course.” Blanc grinned. “I’m here to help you. After all, you’ve got a valid reason to be angry. Think of me as a force of chaos directed in your favour. Now, let’s expose some truth, shall we?” Lady Wifi hesitated. She really didn’t trust this guy, but if he wanted to help then it was his funeral.

“Fine.” She folded her arms. 

“Great!” Blanc clapped his hands together. “So, where to first? I’m assuming you have a plan in place, yes?”

“First...We go to Principal Damocles.” Lady Wifi smiled. 

The trip over was quiet enough, punctuated mostly by Blanc’s humming or talking about something or another. He was awfully cheerful, which would have been nice if it wasn’t so damn unsettling. He wasn’t happy in a normal way. Lady Wifi couldn’t put her finger on why he creeped her out, he just did. He was weird. She was thankful when they landed outside the door to the principal’s office. 

“Ladies first.” He said, opening the door. She rolled her eyes and turned on her phone as she entered the office. 

“I'm Lady Wifi, revealer of the truth!” She announced, turning the camera first on herself and then the principal. “For our first exposé, your principal would like to share a little tidbit with you. So, Mr Damocles, is it true you wrongly suspended a student named Alya today?”

“Uh...Yes, it is.” Faced with two strange people, the principal couldn’t think of anything else to say. He had the distinct feeling he would get hurt if he lied. The one in white had claws for goodness sake!

“So, you were biased? Unfair? Totally unjust?!” Lady Wifi pressed.

Mr Damocles’ shoulders slumped. “Yes, I was.” 

Lady Wifi smiled in triumph. She had proof now of her unjust suspension. But that wasn’t enough. Oh no. Now, to expose the truth of Ladybug’s identity. That woman, whoever she was, had no right to have put her in this situation.

“For my next scoop, I’ll be taking you to meet the girl who’s been hiding behind the Ladybug mask!” She announced, putting a pause on Mr Damocles. “Stay connected!” And with that, she ended the video. 

“Am I correct in assuming Chloé is the one you’re going after next?” Blanc asked as they made their escape. 

“A good reporter always follows her leads.” Lady Wifi said. “If she isn’t Ladybug, then I’ve simply eliminated one possible suspect.” Chloé Bourgeois was many things, but a hero was not one of them. At least not with the way she acted now. Blanc couldn’t help but snicker to himself. This was going to be quite interesting. 

,

Chloé was in her room, doing what she generally did when she had time to herself. Well, one of the things she generally did. Dress up as Ladybug and pretend to save the city. No one was allowed to know she did this, though. She would never hear the end of it at school if people found out that she played dress up like some kind of child! 

“Nice costume. You make it yourself?” 

Chloé spun around at the sudden intrusion. A man was leaning against the glass doors that led to her balcony. He was handsome, she had to admit that much. He looked a bit like Adrien and that dork Chat Noir smashed into one being. Except this one wore white. 

“What are you doing here?” She demanded. “Do you know who I am?!”

“Chloé Bourgeois.” The man smiled and sauntered over. “I’ve heard so much about you.” Chloé opened her mouth to brag, but the man cut her off. “None of it was good, darling. You’ve made a lot of enemies.”

“Who are you?” She asked, almost shrinking away. This was someone her father’s influence couldn’t control, and she knew it. 

“My name is Chat Blanc.” He said. “You could say I’m a....new associate of Paris’ favourite crime-fighting duo. Not an ally though, mind you. I don’t think I made a very good first impression. So don’t go asking me to introduce you to Ladybug. Because I can’t do that. That is, unless you want to meet her in a hostage crisis.”

“Then what can you do?” Chloé asked incredulously.

He grinned, baring his teeth. “Oh, I can do lots of things.”

_ She wanted to throw Chloé off the balcony, watch her cry and beg for her life, swear to be a better person. She wanted to make a bully pay for the pain she’d caused. The impulse reared its head but was quickly destroyed by memories of Chloé tugging on her skirt and staring at her with wide eyes.  _

Chloé’s phone began to ring. 

“Better pick that up.” Blanc said. He was a little quieter, almost distracted. Whatever. As long as he stopped making that creepy smile. 

“Hello?” Chloé picked up the phone. As soon as the words passed her lips, the phone began to glow bright pink. Chloé almost dropped it. In an instant, Lady Wifi appeared from the glowing phone. 

“Well hello there, Ladybug!” The villainess sneered. Chloé had always wanted to be like Ladybug, but in this moment she wanted anything but that. She turned to run. She had to get away from these crazy people! Unfortunately, she was stopped in her tracks as Lady Wifi paused her. Blanc had made no effort whatsoever to catch the retreating blonde. Not that it mattered. Lady Wifi had it under control. She started recording. 

“Well, well...So my hunch was correctamundo.” She said. “Everyone thinks the girl beneath the Ladybug costume is a little angel. Think again, people! The real Ladybug is...” She reached up and pulled the mask off Chloé’s costume. “Chloé Bourgeois, everyone!” It was at that moment that Ladybug and Chat Noir busted through the window. 

“It was a good costume.” Blanc said, checking his claws. “But I doubt you can take the real Ladybug’s mask off that easily.”

“You are not helping!” Lady Wifi snapped. “Why did you even come here with me if you knew she wasn’t the real Ladybug?!”

“I’m backup.” He shrugged. “It’s not my place to tell you what to do. I just follow orders.”

“Well here’s an order, distract them!” Lady Wifi pressed play on Chloé again, sending the girl stumbling face-first into the floor. 

“Alya?” Ladybug whispered. Oooh, what a clever one. Well, in her defence, Hawkmoth hadn’t exactly been creative with his champion’s costume this time. 

“Alya’s been disconnected. I’m Lady Wifi. Newsflash!” Lady Wifi said. “Ladybug, let’s find out who you really are!” She beat a hasty retreat to figure out a plan, leaving Blanc to provide his distraction. He strolled out of Chloé’s room and into the stairwell, sliding up the railings and humming loudly. Lady Wifi was above him, already having locked the lower floor doors. 

“I’ve got you now Ladybug!” Her voice echoed down to the superheroes who had just entered. Ladybug and Chat wanted to take her to the basement to take away her power, but that wasn’t about to happen. Blanc looked at a nonexistent watch on his wrist, then jumped down in front of the heroes. 

“Hey there.” He grinned. “Hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to distract you now.”

“Two villains?” Ladybug whispered. “I didn’t know Hawkmoth could akumatize two people at once.”

“Oh, he can’t.” Blanc said brightly. “I’m something else. Not sure what yet, but it’s something!”

“He’s insane.” 

“He reminds me of a character from a manga I read.” Chat said. “Bertie something. Dangit! I was just reading it last night!”

“Berthier.” Blanc corrected him. “I’m flattered, really, I am. Pity I don’t have a huge sword. I could do a cosplay.”

“You know, this is actually kind of nice. I like him.” Chat looked over at Ladybug. “I vote we convert him to our side.”

“Can we do that?” This had to be the strangest experience Ladybug had had with any of the villains she and Chat had encountered. Normally they were angry, rage-fueled. This Chat Blanc guy was just plain weird. Villains weren’t supposed to be cheerful and polite. They weren’t supposed to make small talk.

“Unfortunately for you, no.” Blanc grinned, revealing fangs that had not been there before. “I think messing with both of you is more fun. Now, Lady Wifi should be done with her plan, so I should probably be going.” Before either knew what was happening he was darting up the stairs like a cat towards the only door that didn’t have a pink lock symbol on it. 

“I guess she knows we’re coming.” Chat said. Ladybug resisted the urge to pinch him and ran for the door. The two heroes came out into the hotel dining room. Neither villain appeared to be present, but a phone sat on every table, meaning Lady Wifi could appear at any moment. And she did. She popped out of one of the phones, throwing pause symbols at them. Ladybug retaliated, trying to tie Lady Wifi up with her yo-yo. Each time she did, the villainess disappeared, only to appear above another phone. 

“Ha! You can’t get me!” Lady Wifi taunted. Blanc lounged on a rafter. That had been quite unwise of her to say. It would just give Ladybug ideas. 

“Yes, I can.” Ladybug said, smiling serenely as she systematically broke every phone on every table. With that plan foiled, Lady Wifi ran for the kitchen. Ladybug followed, along with Chat, but the door closed behind the two girls, leaving Chat alone. 

“No, no, no...” Chat swore under his breath. “Hold on in there, Ladybug!” He began to pull up the hotel map on his staff, but it was knocked away from him. Standing directly next to him was Blanc, smiling pleasantly. 

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” Blanc said. “Divide and conquer and all that.” Chat gritted his teeth. He couldn’t afford to use up Cataclysm on this guy. But then again, Blanc didn’t even have a weapon. 

“Are we going to fight or what?” Blanc asked, looking the slightest bit miffed. Chat lunged at the taller man, staff at the ready. Blanc sidestepped the cat boy at every turn. This whole thing continued longer than was probably necessary, but Blanc was having fun with this. He already knew Chat’s fighting style. It wasn’t worth it to even try at this point. Finally, though, he had had enough and picked up Chat, throwing him into the service elevator. Time to move the plot along. He pressed the right buttons and waved goodbye as the doors closed. Send the kitty to his lady and wait for Lady Wifi. To be honest, this whole thing was a bit boring. It suddenly occurred to him he didn’t even know what he could do when he was like this. He didn’t even know what had made him this way. He looked down at the ring that was still on his finger. Her mother’s ring. He shook his head and left the building, going back to the Agreste mansion, back to her room. She landed on the windowsill and was herself again. 

She sat down, looking at her mother’s ring. It was different now. A deep purple storm brewed behind the silver butterfly, shifting and changing even as Jeanne looked at it. It was a Miraculous. She had a Miraculous. The first question that came to mind was where her mother had gotten a Miraculous. Her parents were fashion designers. There was no reason they'd have a Miraculous, let alone give one to her. But that was quickly swept away by the memories of her time as Chat Blanc. She'd felt as though she could do anything. There were no consequences. She could do whatever she wanted. 

“Do you want to know what that is?” A white cat, or something that resembled it, had settled on her bed. It had a large head and a tiny body, looking very much like what she expected kwamis to look like. It almost looked like Plagg...Except this thing had two tails, and eyes that were such a deep purple. 

“Yeah.” She got down off the windowsill. 

The cat smiled in a Cheshire Cat fashion and curled its tails. “My name is Shii. It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

“Are you a Kwami?” With the way the cat thing looked it could only be that. She felt stupid even asking, but she wanted verification. 

“Of a sort.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means what it means.” Shii flicked their tails. “Up until this point you’ve only interacted with a certain type of kwami. I’m not like Plagg or Tikki or Noroo or Wayzz. I’m the other side of the coin. I was created to be the opposite.” She only knew two of those names so she just nodded, transfixed by the kwami’s amethyst eyes. 

“So, would you like to continue our relationship?” Shii asked. “Do you want to keep your freedom?”

“Of course I do!” Jeanne answered without thinking. It had felt good, being Chat Blanc. She hadn’t had to worry about anything. None of her responsibilities had mattered. She had to hang on to that feeling. Had to keep being Blanc. Now that she’d had a taste, she couldn’t go back. Shii’s smile widened. 

“I knew you would.” The kwami purred. “Now let me fill you in on just what I can do.”


	8. Evillustrator

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There was a post someone did about how they thought it would be cool if there were 14 Miraculouses, 7 representing light and 7 representing dark but I can't find it. That was the inspiration for Shii's explanation.

She sat for a good hour listening to the little kwami talk. According to Shii, originally there had been 14 Miraculouses created. 7 to embody the light and 7 to embody the dark. Over the centuries that the Miraculouses had existed, the dark ones had been lost or destroyed. Shii wasn’t entirely sure how he’d gotten to this point, but he was perfectly happy as long as he was with someone.

“You have become the new wielder of my Miraculous.” He said. “That of the white cat. With the power of...” The kwami did a little drum roll. “Nullification. You can take away the powers of others. For a time.”

“That’s pretty powerful.”

“Of course, the rules are the same as with all the others.” Shii waved a paw. “How long it lasts depends on how much power you exert. The longest it’s lasted is a day.”

“Isn’t it a bit cruel to do that to someone?” Jeanne asked, starting to wring her hands. She didn’t want to take away her brother’s power, especially knowing how much it meant to him.

“It’s just a power. It’s not cruel.”

“You’re...You’re sure?”

Shii smiled a big Cheshire Cat grin. “Would I lie to you, kid?”

And so began Jeanne’s career as Chat Blanc. Every time, Adrien would come back from fighting and complain endlessly to his sister about Blanc. Jeanne would smile and nod and hide her sketchbook, the one that had the drawings she’d created of the man who would become Chat Blanc. She knew this was a bad idea. Deep down she knew this was something she shouldn’t be doing. But she couldn’t help herself. It was so nice to finally be able to be someone else, not Jeanne Agreste, not the perfect daughter or kindly sister. No responsibilities, no worries, just freedom. It was wrong. She knew that. But it was so much easier to just push her problems away rather than deal with them. Of course, Adrien knew something was wrong, he always did. He couldn’t prove anything though. There was no way he’d even consider the possibility. That was what kept her safe. 

 

She had gone to Adrien’s school that day in order to give the students some art lessons. Well, they’d actually called another artist, but she had been called away for an emergency situation and Adrien had recommended Jeanne. He sat there like a puppy dog in the first row, so excited to get her “professional” opinion. It almost made her forget that she’d been going behind his back and battling him. She had to admit, the kids in Adrien’s class had some pretty good artistic talent. Marinette had a cute cartoony style while Nino and Alya had a more simplistic way of drawing. Rose had beautiful sketches of plants, and Juleka could draw the most amazing shine on a mirror. Kim understood motion very well and Max could draw circuitry with a level of detail Jeanne hadn’t seen before. Then she got to Nathanael. He’d been hunched over for the most part, completely focused on whatever it was he was doing. Jeanne walked up behind him, trying to get a look at his work. It turned out to be a comic depicting him saving Marinette from Stormy Weather and Lady Wifi as a superhero. 

“This is amazing!.” She gasped and leaned over Nathanael’s shoulder to get a better look. “Your perspective is excellent, and your proportions are very well done. True, your shading does need a bit of work, but you’re a rather accomplished artist for your age.”

“Th-Thanks.” Nathanael flushed and looked away. “I practice a lot.”

“It’s certainly paying off.” She smiled. “Keep it up.”

“Jeeeaaannetteeee! You haven’t even gotten to me!” Chloé whined. 

“I’ll be there in a moment Chloé, be patient.” Jeanne’s smile faltered a considerable bit as she made her way down to the blond heiress. Chloé had drawn a picture of her and Adrien kissing. It was in a cute little anime style, something she’d probably learned from Adrien. 

“It’s very nice, Chloé.” Jeanne said. “I especially like the detail on the clothing.”

“Mine’s the best, right?” Chloé flipped her hair, obviously expecting Jeanne to agree with her. Unfortunately, she did not. 

“Well, it is good,” Jeanne began. “But your proportions still need some work. Not to mention the hands are a bit wonky. Still, I’m sure with work you’ll get even better.” It was the same advice all her art teachers had given her when she’d been taking lessons. 

“So Tomato Boy is better than me?!” Chloé sprung up, looking utterly furious.

“Chloé, I never said that.” Jeanne couldn’t help but sigh. 

“Miss Bourgeois, please sit down.” Miss Bustier took as kind and calm a tone as she could. Chloé made a screeching sound but sat down, arms folded. 

“I think that’s enough excitement.” Miss Bustier looked apologetically at Jeanne. “Thank you again for coming on such short notice.”

Jeanne picked up her bag. “Oh, it was no problem, really. Have a nice day.” And with a wave, she left the classroom. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up. She could sense someone would be akumatized soon. 

“Your first real mission.” Shii whispered from inside her bag. “This’ll be exciting.” A few moments later Nathanael exited the classroom, tears in his eyes. 

Blanc smiled. “Let’s have some fun.”

 

The Evillustrator stood up and looked around, a singular goal in mind. First, he had to humiliate Chloé the way she’d humiliated him. Then, he would sweep Marinette off her feet. 

“So  _ you’re _ Nathanael.” Someone said from behind Evillustrator. “At least your costume isn’t nearly as ridiculous as some of the others.” He turned around to find the source of the voice. He recognized Chat Blanc in an instant. There were few in the city who didn’t know of the villain by now. 

“Thank you?”

“You’re welcome.” Blanc grinned and slapped Evillustrator’s back. “Anyway, I’m looking forward to working with you. I hear your artistic skills are pretty great.”

“What do you mean, ‘work with me’?” Evillustrator asked. 

“Oh, you don’t know?” Blanc’s expression shifted to that of a frown. “I thought everyone had figured it out by now. I help people like you, those who have been bestowed with Hawkmoth’s little butterflies.” He smiled again. “Consider me a bodyguard. I’m just here to make sure everything goes smoothly for you. Whatever you need, I’ll do it. Especially if it involves teaching Miss Bourgeois a lesson.”

“You’ll help me do that?” Evillustrator’s eyes widened. 

“Of course. It’s my job.”

The two moved to the library where Marinette and Sabrina had begun to fight with Chloé. It was something about Sabrina and Marinette not wanting to do all of the work for some physics presentation. While they’d been sneaking, well while Blanc had been sneaking, he’d caught some of a conversation between Marinette and Chloé.

“I think I heard our dear Miss Bourgeois complaining about her hair.” Blanc said innocently. “Why don’t we help her with that?”

“She mentioned a beret too.” Evillustrator murmured, beginning to draw. First, a beret dropped onto Chloé’s head, mussing her hair a bit. But it wasn’t enough. Next came a hairdryer. A giant hairdryer that followed Chloé and utterly destroyed the pristine hairstyle Chloé was so proud of.

“Pardon me.” Blanc separated from Evillustrator, climbing up into the library rafters. He dropped down to snatch the beret off Chloé’s head. 

“Miss Bourgeois.” He cooed. “We really must stop meeting like this.”

Chloé shrieked and ran away from him, and right into the path of the hairdryer. She was sobbing, trying to cover her hair. 

“Please! Please!” She screamed. “Not the hair!”

“It’s just hair, dear.” Blanc sighed, spinning the beret on one clawed finger. “Small price to pay for being such a bully if you ask me.”

“But everyone loves me!”

Blanc’s smile vanished, the beret crushed in his hand. How dare she? After everything Chloé had done, the girl had the gall to claim that everyone loved her. Did she even know how much pain she had caused? How many people she’d hurt? More importantly, did Chloé even care?

“No one loves you Chloé. You’re a monster.” He whispered.

“Get away from her!” Ladybug yelled. In an instant, she and Chat had appeared. It had taken them long enough. Ladybug disintegrated the hairdryer with her as Chat rushed Blanc. 

“As you wish.” Blanc dropped the hat and darted back to where Evillustrator was. 

“That guy looks pretty sketchy.” Chat said. 

“Clever boy.” Blanc rolled his eyes. “You done?” He turned to Evillustrator. 

“Yeah, I’m done.”

“Well then, let’s go.” The two villains turned and ran. The heroes gave chase, but Evillustrator had the upper hand, drawing a wall between them, allowing the villains to escape. Once they were a safe enough distance away, Evillustrator put a hand on Blanc’s shoulder. 

“Hey, are you okay?” He asked. “I know Chloé’s bad, but you seemed really upset.”

“It’s nothing.” Blanc forced himself to smile. “You don’t need to worry about it. Just past experiences rearing their ugly heads.”

“You were bullied?”

“It’s not something I talk about, kid.” She’d never been free with her pain. Admitting she was hurt had always caused things to get worse. Crying was weakness. Sharing her pain was weakness. She couldn’t say anything, even as Blanc. It would be letting them win by thinking about it. She’d destroy them. One by one.

“Is that why you became a villain? Because of people like Chloé?”

“Nathanael,” his voice was soft and measured. “Let it go. Please.”

“....Okay.”

“So, what’s next?” Blanc sprung back into his usual bright state. “That thing with Chloé can’t be the only thing you’ve got planned.”

“Well, today is my birthday.” Evillustrator said. “And I wanted to have Marinette celebrate with me. She’s really nice and she’s nothing like Chloé!” 

“Sounds like someone has a crush.” Blanc couldn’t help but laugh a little. “This Marinette girl seems like a real sweetheart. I’m happy to help.”

Evillustrator’s face lit up. “Great! Her house is this way.”

 

Marinette’s house wasn’t too far from the school so it didn’t take long to get over. They had to wait until Marinette got home to invite her to Nathanael’s little party though. 

“Do you think she’ll say yes?” Evillustrator asked as they sat on the roof and watched Marinette’s window. “I really hope she says yes.”

“Calm down kiddo!” Blanc slapped his back. “Everything’ll be fine, I’m sure of it! You’re a sweet kid. I’m sure she’d love to hang out with you. But don’t fault her if she gets a little freaked out at first. We don’t exactly look normal.” 

“Oh...right.” 

Just then they saw Marinette enter her room. 

“Showtime.” Blanc stood up and stretched. “Go on then.” Evillustrator made the jump to the window ledge and began erasing the window. Blanc waited until Evillustrator was in the room before following suit. 

“It’s you! The one from the library!” Marinette said. “What are you doing here?” Blanc had to say, she was doing a rather good job of covering up the fact that she knew what was going on.

“I wanted to see you.” Evillustrator said. 

“Okay...But why attack Chloé?” Marinette asked. 

“Why do you think?” Blanc arched an eyebrow. “If you ask me we let her off lightly, given how cruel and selfish the girl is.”

“What he said.”

“Can’t argue with that...Are you going to hurt me?” Marinette asked. 

Evillustrator was taken aback. “You? You're Marinette! You're beautiful and sweet and... you're perfect and I could never hurt you!”

“Wow...that's, uh... very, umm...flattering! Uh, thank you?” Marinette blushed and looked anywhere but at Evillustrator, which meant her eyes landed on Blanc. 

“So, I just came by to ask you,” Evillustrator continued, unfazed. “It, uh, well, it's my birthday today, and, uh, would you wanna come to my party?” As Evillustrator and Marinette talked, Blanc let his eyes roam around the room. Marinette had a lot of pictures of Adrien taped up around her room. If she knew who Blanc really was, the girl would be scrambling to take them down. She didn’t have to worry though. Blanc wasn’t about to spill any secrets. Jeanne had already told Adrien she was pretty sure Marinette had a crush on him. Now they were certain. It was almost cute. He found himself smiling softly. If only those two weren’t so dense. Suddenly Evillustrator tapped his shoulder. 

“We have to get ready.” The boy was practically shining.

“Of course.” Blanc looked back and winked at Marinette. “See you later, my lady.” Before Marinette could say anything he was out the window with Evillustrator and gone. 

“That went well, I’m assuming?” He asked as he jumped from rooftop to rooftop behind Evillustrator. 

“Yes! She’s coming to the party! I have to make it perfect.”

“Good luck.” Blanc didn’t want this to end. He liked working with this kid. Nathanael wasn’t nearly as angry and villainous as the others Blanc had aligned himself with. He had such pure goals, well aside from ruining Chloé’s hair. But still, it hadn’t been that bad. They’d just blown Chloé’s hair around a lot, nothing more. It was almost refreshing to just help the kid woo Marinette. 

“I’ll meet you at the Seine, okay?” Blanc stopped hopping. “I just need to talk to someone.” He took off over the rooftops, back to Marinette’s house. As expected, Chat had shown up to play the knight in shining armour. He was making some big grand speech. Blanc wrinkled his nose and dropped down next to them. 

“I need to talk to you.” He said, his cheerfulness vanishing. “Both of you.” Chat drew his weapon and stepped in front of Marinette. 

“Put it away, kid. I’m not going to attack.” Blanc rolled his eyes. “Just hear what I have to say.” Chat narrowed his eyes, Marinette doing the same. He knew they didn’t trust him, who would at this point? He just needed them to listen. 

“Look, just let the kid have his fantasy, okay?” Blanc said. “Yes, he messed with Chloé, but she did kinda deserve it. If you don’t want to go, I get it. Just...” He sighed. “He’s not that much of a threat. God knows he’s better than half the akumatized victims I’ve worked with. Just let him have his thing. Please. I’ll get him to give over his tablet afterwards and everything will be fine. He’ll be satisfied.” No one said anything. Chat still had his weapon raised. Marinette still looked ready to transform. 

“Please.” Blanc said again. “I like this kid. I don’t want a big fight.”

“That’s not like you.” Chat said. 

“Like I said, I like this kid.”

Chat looked back at Marinette and then at Blanc. “If you can guarantee no one else will get hurt then fine, we’ll do it.”

“I swear, no one else will get hurt.”

 

And no one did. Although there was a brief scuffle in which Hawkmoth tried to take over Evillustrator’s body, the whole thing went smoothly. Marinette had a decent time, but let Nathanael down easy about her feelings towards him. He took it better than expected and was happy to be her friend as long as he still got to be around her. For once, the story had a happy ending. Of course, Hawkmoth was none too pleased with Blanc, but it wasn’t like Blanc had ever cared what Hawkmoth thought. 

“That was boring.” Shii whined once they were back in Jeanne’s room. “Couldn’t you at least have let them duke it out?”

“No!” Jeanne’s voice came out sharp. “I mean....No. Nathanael deserved better than that. He deserved a happy ending.”

“Ugh, fine.” Shii rolled over. “Rub my belly. I want three rubs exactly.”

“Alright alright.” Jeanne said, laughing. “Three and then you’ll bite?”

“Clever girl.” 

She petted Shii for an hour afterwards, composing an email with her free hand. She reached out to Nathanael, asking if he wanted art lessons from her, or if he didn’t like that she could introduce him to Théo. It was rare for her to find someone who reminded her so much of herself. She had to make sure he’d be okay. She pushed Shii into a drawer when Adrien entered the room. 

“Hey, everyone okay?” She asked, looking up from her laptop. 

“Yeah...” Adrien nodded vaguely, sitting down on the floor across from her. “Something...Something weird happened today.”

“What was it?”

“Blanc actually helped someone.”

She feigned the appropriate amount of surprise. “That’s certainly unusual. At least no one got hurt though. No one did get hurt, right?”

“Just Chloé’s hair.”

“Well...maybe he’s not so bad.” Jeanne suggested. “If he helped someone maybe there’s good in him after all.” Adrien scowled at the air and stood up again. 

“I don’t know...” He said. “There’s still something off about him.” He turned and left to his room, closing the door behind him. Jeanne looked back at her computer. She was lucky her brother was so dense. Otherwise, he would have figured her out by now. It was only a matter of time, really. 


	9. Rogercop

She’d woken up feeling shitty. It happened every so often, so it wasn’t like she hadn’t been expecting it at some point. 

“Shii, can you get my meds?” She mumbled into her pillow. “I don’t wanna move.”

“Bad day, kid?” Shii asked as he floated to and from the connecting bathroom with the bottles. Jeanne just grunted, taking the bottle and measuring out the correct dosage before swallowing them with a swig from her water bottle. Shii floated down and started kneading her lower back. As much of an asshole as he could be, he did seem to care about her. Even if he also had his bad days.

“JEANNE!” Adrien burst in. Shii almost didn’t have time to hide. 

“Inside voice.” Jeanne said. “It’s a bad day.”

“Sorry.” He lowered his voice. “It’s just, today’s Parent’s Career Day and I was wondering if Dad said anything about coming?”

“I don’t think I’m the right person to ask.” She sat up, yawning. “I can come if you like, but I’m not sure how helpful I’ll be.” She knew that wouldn’t work though. Adrien wanted their father. 

“It would be nice if you’d come.” He admitted. “Just to have someone there in case Dad doesn’t come. But you don’t have to come. You’re having a bad day.”

“Ssssh.” She waved a hand at him. “You’re my baby brother. I can’t have you being alone while everyone else has someone.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m sure.”

As it turned out, Gabriel didn’t come. The siblings spent half of the presentation out in the hallway while Adrien tried to call their father. Jeanne let him lean on her shoulder. She’d gotten all dressed up but she was still feeling shitty. She hated having to smile while she felt so crappy. Their father’s perpetual absenteeism only made her feel worse. She decided to go back in, just in time for Chloé to start shrieking about some missing bracelet. 

“You! You stole it!” She yelled, pointing at Marinette.

“Chloé.” Jeanne decided to shut that shit down before it even started. “It’s extremely rude to start accusing people without any evidence.”

“But she totally tripped on my bag to steal it!” Chloé whined. 

“My daughter is not a thief!” Tom Dupain said. The room erupted into an argument as Mayor Bourgeois jumped in to defend his daughter and Sabrina’s father, Roger, tried to keep the peace. Jeanne’s hands began to shake. 

“EVERYONE SHUT THE FUCK UP!” She roared. The room went dead silent. Jeanne stood there, absolutely furious. 

“Just....Just look for the bracelet.” Jeanne took a few deep breaths, beating back Blanc’s urge to curse out everyone in the room. “I highly doubt Marinette would steal your bracelet, Chloé. From what I know, she has no history of being a thief.”

“You’re calling me a liar?!” Chloé raised her voice. 

“No, Chloé, that’s not what I said.” This was getting to be so irritating. What she wouldn’t give to take that girl down a peg or two. But Chloé was her friend. “I’m sure the bracelet is around here and no one stole it. No one needs to get blamed. It must have rolled out when Marinette tripped.”

“Miss Agreste, I appreciate your input, but we must search the girl.” Mayor Bourgeois took on the sort of tone one would use to speak to a child who didn’t know any better. That was it. That was the last straw. Jeanne turned and stormed out, turning into Blanc once she was away from everyone. Then he went right back. It was time to finally chew Chloé out. Blanc was a villain after all, he could do what he wanted. He got back to the classroom as chaos was erupting. Everyone was a suspect. 

“My my, what do we have here?” He draped himself over the ceiling beam like the Cheshire Cat. “Is our fair city’s favourite monster breathing fire and burning innocent civilians again?”

“Not you again!” Chloé shrieked. “Daddy! Make him go away!”

“Yeah, like that’s going to work.” Blanc rolled his eyes. “I hear your bracelet is missing. Why don’t you try actually looking for it instead of starting a witch hunt like the hysterical spoiled brat you are.”

“How dare-”

“How dare I? Oh come on, we’re all thinking it.” Blanc yawned and leaned back. 

“Why are you even here?” Marinette asked. “There aren’t any akuma victims.” 

“I come and go as I please.” Blanc shrugged. “I’m here right now because I passed a furious young lady storming away from this school and I just had to listen to her plight.”

“Jeanne?” Adrien asked. He’d come in shortly after his sister had left, and while he’d been spared suspicion, he was similarly getting fed up with this whole thing. It was then he spotted Plagg with the bracelet around his head. He discreetly picked up the kwami, since all eyes were thankfully on Blanc, and swiftly exited stage left.

“Why yes. I do believe it was her.” Blanc’s smile widened. “She lamented how frustrated she was with the current situation. How she wished you would all just behave like reasonable people instead of jumping to conclusions and blaming people you don’t like, like Miss Bourgeois does on a regular basis.”

“That is my daughter you are speaking about!”

“Are you going to deny it, then?” Blanc asked. “Tell me she doesn’t blame everyone but herself for her problems? And I wonder how that happened. Maybe Daddy just threw money at her to keep her happy.” 

“That is preposterous!” Mayor Bourgeois spat. “I’m going to find the principal, then we can sort this whole thing out.” He stormed out of the room, leaving the class still gazing at Blanc. 

“Think I hit a little too close to home there?” Blanc batted his eyelashes. 

“You’re not very nice.” Rose said, with considerably less energy than usual. 

“Sweetheart, I’m not supposed to be nice.” Blanc shifted position so he was sitting cross-legged, head resting in his hands. “And the truth about rich families is that there’s no love behind those gilded doors. Absentee parents and money create monsters like Chloé who think their every whim deserves to be satisfied just because they’re rich and powerful.” Before anyone could respond, a blue mechanical behemoth burst through the door. 

“Where is the mayor?” It demanded. 

“Dad?” Sabrina asked. 

“That’s her dad?!” Marinette could scarcely believe it. Although, she could see a man inside the suit of armour. 

“The mayor left to go get the principal.” Blanc hung from the rafter by his knees. “You need my help with this?”

“Chat Blanc, you are a menace to society.” Rogercop lifted his hand. “I must arrest you.”

“Oh f- Aaah!” Blanc started jumping all over the room, avoiding the light cuffs the akumatized Roger was shooting at him. “STOP SHOOTING AT ME! YOU’RE GONNA HIT SOME INNOCENT!” 

“You must be detained.” Rogercop said. 

“Let’s spray him with water!” Kim shouted. A few students got out water bottles and started spritzing water at the frantically fleeing Blanc.

“FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS GOOD SOMEONE MAKE HIM STOP SHOOTING AT ME!” Blanc screeched, making cat noises of distress. It was hilarious watching the villain scamper around like an angry cat.

“Don’t you need to go after the Mayor or something?” Blanc asked when Rogercop had cornered him. Rogercop hesitated, gun trained on Blanc. Then he lowered his arm and left. Blanc sighed deeply and stood up, brushing himself off. 

“Okay, that was embarrassing.” He muttered. Nathanael gave him a towel. 

“Thanks, kid.” Blanc’s ears were flattened against his head as he dried himself off. Marinette and Adrien had seemingly vanished, probably to go become Ladybug and Chat. 

“So...I’m gonna go now.” Blanc forced a grin. 

“Not until I find my bracelet!” Chloé shrieked. 

“WOULD YOU ZIP IT ABOUT YOUR STUPID BRACELET?!” Blanc snarled. 

“WOULD YOU STOP FOLLOWING ME AROUND?!” Chloé snapped back. She wasn’t nearly as afraid of Blanc as she had been when he’d first shown up. As far as she was concerned, he was just some weird guy who was either perpetually grumpy or perpetually happy. 

“Forget it.” Blanc muttered, storming out of the room. As he left, he bumped into Rogercop pursuing Mayor Bourgeois. Blanc, following his animal instincts, backed the fuck up because he did not want to end up with his hands and ankles cuffed together like he was an actual cat. Chloé had run out after him, likely to drag him back in, but once she saw Rogercop she ran after him. 

“Mr Rogercop!” She yelled. “I’ve got a serious problem! Worse than a bad hair day!”

“Come with me and we’ll talk about it.” Rogercop said, halting his pursuit for a moment. Blanc rolled his eyes.

“Okay.” Chloé said brightly as Rogercop led her to his car.  

“Chloé no!” Chat yelled. 

“Chloé yes.” Blanc sighed. “I can’t believe she keeps doing this.” The door to the car closed and the car took off. Ladybug and Chat took off after the car. Blanc just groaned, tail flicking restlessly. 

“I have never hated this job more than I do right now.” He sighed and started making his way towards city hall. That had to be where everyone was headed. 

 

Sure enough, everyone was a city hall. Well, Ladybug and Chat were outside and the mayor was on a large screen announcing a new development.

“Paris has a new superpower. His name is Rogercop. I hereby relinquish all authority to Rogercop. All citizens are ordered to answer at him.” The mayor said solemnly. 

“Ladybug, Chat Noir, and Chat Blanc are now outlaws. They must be hunted down and taken into custody immediately.” Rogercop said. Blanc’s ears flattened against his head as he saw officers begin to surround him and the superheroes. 

“Okay kids, come on.” He gestured frantically. “Let’s get out.” They nodded and all three vanished onto the rooftops and away from any officers of the law. Once they were safely away, 

Ladybug looked at Blanc. “What was that about?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Blanc muttered

“So he’s not on your side?” Chat tried to stifle a snicker. 

“Shut it furball.” Blanc legitimately hissed at the boy. “Hawkmoth’s probably mad at me about Evillustrator and has deemed me a threat.”

“And now you’re working with us.” Ladybug finished. 

“As soon as he’s gone, I’m back to being your enemy. It’s more fun that way.” Blanc said. “I don’t like being a fugitive.”

“You’re a villain. You’ve been a fugitive since you showed up.” Chat said. Blanc glared at him until the other cat stopped talking. Chat found himself distinctly reminded of Jeanne on one of her bad days. Where was Jeanne? He hadn’t seen her since she’d stormed out of the classroom.

“So, we need a plan.” Ladybug quickly moved on. “Unless you two want to be wanted felons for the rest of your lives.”

“No ma’am.” The boys said together before glaring at one another.

“We haven’t even done anything!” Chat said. “You can’t accuse someone without proof! We should defend ourselves in the Court of Law!”

“Now while Rogercop’s the Chief of Justice.” Ladybug sighed. 

“Well, that’s what paranoia and strict logic get ya.” Blanc said, examining his steel claws. “At least it’s not Chloé in charge.”

“How many times have we saved Paris?” Chat completely ignored Blanc. 

“We’re still saving Paris.” Ladybug reminded him. 

“Hello? Still here.” Blanc waved his hands. “We got a plan or what?”

“You’re not very helpful, are you?” Ladybug raised an eyebrow. “Do you have some kind of plan?”

“I can be a distraction.” He said. “I’m always distracting.”

“Well, we can’t just leave you unsupervised.” Ladybug looked at Chat, who looked up at the sky as if praying for strength and then back at Blanc. 

“Fine. I’ll help.”

A few moments later the cats were in the street, right in the middle of the glow of a streetlight as though they were onstage. 

“Something about Paris just makes you wanna dance.” Chat said, leaning on his cane. 

“I know what you mean.” Blanc stood back to back with him, arms folded. “Do you think these fine officers would join us in a dance?”

“You won’t be dancing when I’m through with you! Arrest them!” Rogercop boomed. 

“Something tells me the answer is no.” Chat said, laughing just a little as the officers surrounded the two of them. It was surprisingly fun to fight alongside Chat instead of against him. For a moment, Jeanne wondered if it would be better to change career paths and start working with her little brother. Then she remembered all the times she’d screwed up when trying to be a hero and promptly shut down that line of thinking. It didn’t take long for them to dispatch the officers together. Blanc sheathed his rapier and looked to Chat. 

“Inside then?”

“Of course! My lady needs me!”

“You really are devoted to her.” Blanc smiled softly. “You two make an amazing team.”

“Funny, never thought I’d get praised by you.” Chat said as they walked inside.

“Even enemies can admire one another.” Blanc shrugged. “This isn’t just a job to you, after all. It’s an escape, a way for you to make a difference.”

“How did you-” But Chat didn’t have time to ask because of all of the sudden he found himself in a fight with Rogercop. The lasers were coming at them and there was no time for them to think of anything but avoiding said lasers. 

“The akuma is in his whistle!” Ladybug yelled. “We’ve gotta get to it!”

“How?” Chat asked. Blanc stood behind the two of them, looking around. He spotted Chloé’s bracelet on the floor, rolling towards him. He picked it up. Where on Earth had it been this whole time?

“You two need this?” He yelled, tossing it towards them. Ladybug caught it and nodded appreciatively at him. Chat sprung into action. 

“Cataclysm!” He slid along the floor, leaving a path of destruction in his wake. Rogercop shot a cuff at him, pinning the poor cat to the wall. Fortunately for Chat, the floor collapsed at that moment, leaving him safe while Rogercop fell. Ladybug jumped in, covering Rogercop’s hands (and thus his powers) with oven mitts connected by a belt and Chloé’s bracelet. The defeated villain screamed in defeat as Ladybug snatched his whistle and stamped on it, trapping the akuma when it tried to escape. Lucky Charm was activated and the world returned to normal. 

“Nice working with you, kids.” Blanc inclined his head respectfully and jumped out the window. Once back at the Agreste mansion, Jeanne collapsed onto her bed. 

“Rough day, huh?” Shii settled on the pillow next to her. Jeanne just groaned. She was so sore and too tired to argue or do much of anything. She was napping when Adrien got back. He decided to let her sleep while he dealt with Plagg. The little kwami needed punishment. 


	10. Dark Cupid

It was Valentine’s Day. Never a good sign when it came to akumas. Jeanne sighed and she rolled over in bed. She was sure Chloé was going to end up akumatizing someone by rejecting their love confession. She didn’t want to deal with Chloé and her bullshit today. She did genuinely love the younger girl, but sometimes it was just frustrating to deal with her. Jeanne had already sent out Valentines to Théo and Nathanael so they’d know she was glad for their continued friendship, meaning she had no reason to really go out that day. Maybe she’d take a day off. It wasn’t as though Blanc was integral to the whole akuma process. It seemed like it was going to be a day of staying in her room and sleeping. 

“Jeanne?” Nathalie’s voice came from the doorway. “Will you be doing anything today?” The lump that was Jeanne grunted. 

“Ah. One of those days. Have you taken your meds?”

“Not yet.”

Nathalie walked in, grabbing Jeanne’s med bottle and promptly presenting it to her. Jeanne took it, along with the glass of water Nathalie had brought, and downed the pills. 

“Do you think they’re working?” Nathalie asked. 

“Yeah.” Jeanne sat up and yawned. “It’s just a bad day. I promise, I’m fine.”

“JEANNE!” Adrien burst into the room. 

“Inside voice.” Jeanne and Nathalie said together. 

“Sorry.” He scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. “I, um, I need some help writing a poem for Ladybug. It’s Valentine’s Day after all.” Jeanne couldn’t help but smile as she turned to her brother. 

“For you? I suppose I can lend my talents.” She said, taking on a faux lofty tone. “But we should do it after school. You’re going to be late if you don’t get going soon.” Adrien glanced at the clock on her nightstand and ran back into his room to grab his bag and Plagg. Jeanne laughed as he scrambled out to the car. He was such a dork sometimes. She got up and collected her sketchbook to begin a quiet day of sketching. She drew Ladybug, Chat Noir, and even Chat Blanc. There was something beautiful in the way the heroes fought, the simple motion, clean kicks and punches. Jeanne was proud of the action she managed to convey in the pictures. Shii had decided to sleep in Jeanne’s sock drawer while she was working. He had been strangely tired as of late, but she didn’t think much of it. He was a cat and cats liked sleeping. He did come out for a little to bother her while she drew, insisting she rub his belly and pet his head instead of ignoring him in favour of that useless paper. She didn’t mind, as he was soft and adorable. By the time Adrien returned, she was back to drawing. Her brother slammed open her door and collapsed onto her bed. 

“Rough day?” She asked. 

“Chloé wouldn’t stop bugging me until I signed a poster for her.” Adrien mumbled into her pillow. “She knows I hate signing autographs.”

“She’s probably going to lord it over other girls as some sign you love her.” Jeanne sighed and closed the sketchbook. “I’m sorry, bro.” She pulled his head into her lap and began to gently stroke his hair, as their mother had done after they’d had bad days.

“I can’t think of a poem for Ladybug either.” He said. “Everything I write sounds stupid.”

“That’s love poems for you. You read it over so many times every word seems to lose meaning.”

“It needs to be amazing.” Adrien said, turning and curling into a fetal position. “I need to write something that will blow her away.”

“I’m sure she’ll love anything you give to her.” Jeanne said, aware how cliché she sounded. “As long as you put your true feelings into it.”

“That’s so cheesy.”

“Yeah, I know.” She gently slapped his head. 

“So she's got eyes, arms, legs, big deal! How can you possibly be in love with Ladybug? You don't even know who she really is!” Plagg whined from Adrien’s schoolbag, probably upset because he wasn’t getting cheese. 

“You don’t know anything about love.” Adrien sighed, rolling over to glare at the kwami. 

“Sure I do.” Plagg said. “I love cheddar, I love swiss, and I  _ love _ camembert.” 

“Not sure if that counts.” Jeanne said as Adrien sat up and slumped over to the window. 

“Of course it counts!” Plagg insisted. Jeanne just rolled her eyes and smoothed out her dress. There was no use in trying to argue with Plagg. She knew better than to start. Plagg floated over to Adrien.

“Aww, the poor boy’s frustrated because he can’t finish the poem for his masked sweetheart?” He cooed. 

“Shut up Plagg.” Jeanne threw a pillow at him. “This is very serious. Love isn’t something you can just mock.”

“I don’t need a poem when I can tell her to her face.” Adrien suddenly said, eyes clouding over dreamily. “...I love you.”

Plagg stuck his tongue out. “Gross. You’re making me lose my appetite.”

“Then I guess you won’t want this.” Jeanne held up a piece of camembert.

“I never said that.” The little kwami dashed over, grabbing the camembert. With him distracted, Jeanne went over to Adrien. 

“Don’t let Plagg get you down.” She said. “You’ll figure this out, I know you will.” Adrien looked up at her hopefully. 

“You really think so?”

“I do.” She smiled and nodded. “Now, get back to work, squirt.” She promptly pushed him into his room, throwing Plagg in after him, and shut the door. Satisfied that she had provided sufficient encouragement, she settled back on her bed. Her own mood had worsened slightly. She remembered the last time she’d been in love. That hadn’t exactly ended well. He’d laughed in her face. She should have known a spoiled brat like him would be cruel. But he’d seemed so cool. She shook her head and focused on slowing her breathing. It was in the past. She shouldn’t dwell on it. Still....It hurt remembering the look of scorn on the boy’s face. 

_ You and me? You have to be joking! You’re too fat to be a model anymore! I can’t be seen in public with you! _

She tried to fight back the tears. It wasn’t fair. 

Just then she heard a commotion outside. She went to her window, the closest one to the front door, and looked out. Marinette was at the gate, along with her friend Alya. But...Jeanne squinted. Since when had Alya worn black lipstick? She watched as Alya stuck a candy apple on Marinette’s shirt and ran off cackling. In the sky above was a mysterious winged figure with a bow and arrow. Definitely an akumatized victim. 

“Great, an anti-cupid.” She muttered. “Just what I need. Shii!” She called for her kwami and he came. However, her call also attracted the attention of Dark Cupid in the sky above. He smiled and took his shot. The arrow hit her straight in the heart, just as she was transforming. Before Jeanne could react to it the transformation was over and Chat Blanc was left standing there. His head felt fuzzy. He couldn’t think straight. Anger and manic glee pounded at his mind, even more than usual. He jumped out the window and towards where Dark Cupid was. There was something malicious in his eyes as he tapped the winged boy on the shoulder. 

“Hey there. I heard you might need some help.” His grin was wide and manic, eyes wild. Dark Cupid took a few steps back before nodding slowly. He knew better than to deny this man what he wanted. 

“Great!” 

 

Chloé Bourgeois had been minding her own business, so to speak, when Blanc had tackled her to the ground. One moment she’d been complaining to the men delivering the portrait of Adrien she’d ordered, the next the wind had been knocked out of her as the man known as Chat Blanc landed on her back. She gasped painfully as he held her down. 

“Well well well, little Miss Heartless strikes again.” He jeered. “I see you’ve claimed another victim.”

“Y-You’re hurting me.” Chloé said. 

“Don’t worry. It’ll all be over soon.” Blanc’s claws dug into her shoulders. “My friend just needs to shoot you with one teensy arrow and then I won’t be troubling you.” He dragged her to her feet, never letting go of her shoulders. Dark Cupid took out an arrow and prepared to take his shot. Before he could let the arrow fly, a yo-yo slapped it out of his hands. Blanc growled and threw Chloé away. 

“Ladybug.” He said. “Always ruining my fun.” But Ladybug didn’t notice him. She was busy confronting Dark Cupid. 

“Stop, Kim!” She yelled. 

“I’m not Kim, I’m Dark Cupid!” He yelled back. “I’ll never stop! If I can’t have love, no one can!”

“Okay, Dark Cupid, I get it.” Ladybug tried a pacifying tone. “Chloé totally burned you. But that doesn’t mean you have to take it out on all of Paris!”

“Oh yes, it does!” Blanc said. 

Ladybug turned around and her eyes widened. “B-Blanc? Are you alright?” She seemed taken aback by his appearance. He couldn’t think why. He didn’t have something on his face, did he? 

“Of course I am.” He said. “But that’s beside the point. Don’t you understand? Valentine’s Day is torture for so many people. We’re doing Paris a favour by making all their dark feelings plain! No one can hide what they’re  _ really _ thinking now!”

“You can’t do this!” Ladybug said. 

“Yes, we can.” Dark Cupid began to shoot at her. Blanc hopped up and followed, slashing at Ladybug any chance he got. His heart pounded his ears. Some small voice in the back of his head yelled at him to stop. He was going too far. He wasn’t in this to hurt people. The hatred pushed the voice down, drowning out everything with its screams of violence and vengeance. He lost sight of Ladybug for only a moment when Dark Cupid shot Chat. Something in him took great offence to this, and this time he acted on it, turning tail and attacking Dark Cupid. 

“NO ONE HURTS MY BROTHER!” He shrieked, sinking his claws into the soft flesh of Dark Cupid’s thigh. The akuma victim yelped in pain, falling to the roof of the building they were above. 

“No. One. Shoots. My. Brother.” Blanc panted, raising his claws again. “No one.”

“Ladybug is the one who hurt him in the first place!” Dark Cupid protested. “Let me go!” At that moment he wasn’t a villain. He was a scared child cornered by a monster that he’d created. Blanc hesitated, claws inches from Dark Cupid’s chest. The boy had a good point. 

“Alright.” He let go of Dark Cupid and stood. “Let’s go get her.” Dark Cupid nodded, scrambling to his feet. Chat was on the roof of the next building. 

“Buddy!” Blanc slithered an arm around Chat’s shoulder. “How would you like to destroy Ladybug in return for your Miraculous.” 

Chat grinned, a very unpleasant expression. “Sounds good to me.” 

Together the three of them headed into the hotel, where Ladybug was, along with Chloé and Sabrina. They snuck in using the portrait of Adrien Chloé had ordered. Blanc resisted the urge to claw it up just a little bit. After all, Dark Cupid was probably going to shoot Sabrina who’d do it for them anyway. 

“Didja miss us?” Blanc popped his head out, grinning savagely. “Because we sure missed you!” Dark Cupid rose up and began firing his arrows. Chat leapt over the frame and made a beeline for Ladybug. Blanc followed suit. 

“I don’t want to fight you two.” Ladybug said as the cats approached. 

“Ugh, that friendliness. It’s so revolting.” Chat wrinkled his nose. “You are definitely not my friend!” He jumped up to swing his staff at Ladybug, who blocked and ran to the roof where she tried to flee. Unfortunately, Chat and Blanc were right behind her. 

“You can’t run!” Blanc slashed at her. “We’ll always catch you! Cats are excellent hunters, you know.”

“Why are you both so full of hate?” Ladybug demanded, pulling Chat towards her by his staff. 

“Because hate is strong.” Blanc answered. 

“Because hate conquers all!” Chat said. 

“I hate to burst your bubble, but hate doesn’t conquer all. Love does!” Ladybug said, then gasped. Obviously, she’d had an idea. Blanc was seething. 

“Love.” He spat. “Love can only get you so far. Love fades and love is fickle. Hate stays with you. It keeps you warm on the coldest nights and feeds you. You know nothing.” Ladybug looked at him with a pained expression before she focused her attention on Chat. She was....What was she trying to do? She seemed to be trying to attack him with her mouth. Oh! She was trying to kiss him. Like in a fairytale, breaking the spell with a kiss. Actually, he kind of wanted to see this. Blanc hung back, retreating to a tree and pulling out Jeanne’s phone. Dark Cupid reappeared, forcing Ladybug to use her Lucky Charm. It turned out to be a candy apple, which she hurled at Dark Cupid. In dislodging it, he got his hand all sticky causing it to stick to the bow and leaving Chat open. Ladybug grabbed her teammate and planted one on him. At that moment, Blanc snapped a picture. He was beginning to feel a bit woozy now, although he didn’t know why. He didn’t snap out of it until Ladybug’s power fixed everything. He looked down at his claws, seeing dried blood on them. 

“Wha-?” It all rushed back to him. He’d attacked that kid. He’d legitimately attacked the akumatized Kim. He’d probably bruised Chloé’s ribs too. As horrible as she was, she didn’t deserve physical pain. He rushed back to Jeanne’s room and transformed back. She couldn’t put into words what she was feeling. It was something close to horror. She’d done horrible things and she’d enjoyed it. True, she knew it had been the fault of Dark Cupid’s arrow, but somehow she couldn’t put the thought from her mind. 

“I don’t feel so good.” Shii murmured, floating to Jeanne’s sock drawer. 

“Rest up.” She said, tucking him in. “We’ll talk about it later, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Jeanne? Are you here?” Adrien’s voice brought her back to the moment, and she dried her tears. 

“Yeah.” She said. “Are you okay? That guy was shooting arrows everywhere! One almost hit me.”

“I’m fine.” Adrien opened the door to her room, looking haggard. 

“Bullshit.” She folded her arms. “You got shot.”

“How’d you know?” 

“Why else would Ladybug need to kiss you?” She pulled out her phone and showed him the picture. “A kiss to break the spell, right?” Adrien went bright red and tried to grab the phone, insisted Jeanne delete the picture. She laughed and held it out of his reach. 

“Jeanne! This isn’t funny!” He whined. 

“You’re right, it’s not.” She said solemnly, then broke out in a big smile. “It’s amazing! You had your first kiss with the woman of your dreams, bro! Isn’t that great?”

“It would’ve been, if I hadn’t been trying to kill her.” Adrien said, backing away. Oh. She’d fucked up. Jeanne put her phone down. 

“Hey,” she gestured him over. “I’m sure she knows you didn’t mean anything you said like that. She cares about you enough to kiss you in order to break a spell. That’s a lot of trust.”

“...Not sure I follow, but okay.” Adrien smiled a little. “Um, thanks, sis.” 

“No problem. Now, you gonna open any valentines?” She wiggled her eyebrows. Adrien’s smile faded again. 

“They’ll all say the same thing.” He sighed. “It’s not like any of them really want to get to know me.” 

“Let’s find out.” Jeanne promptly stood up and strode into Adrien’s bedroom, digging through his stash of valentines until she found one that wasn’t like the others. 

“Try this one.” She handed him the heart-shaped piece of paper and watched him read it. 

“Someone answered my poem!” He said. “‘Your hair shines like the sun, your eyes are gorgeous green, I look at you and wonder your innermost thoughts and dreams. Yes, your Valentine I will be, our love will be so true, together for eternity, my heart belongs to you.’”

“Aww, well anyone who writes as sickeningly sweet as you has to be your soulmate.” Plagg said. Jeanne cuffed his ear gently. 

“It isn’t signed.” Adrien sounded the slightest bit disappointed. Suddenly, a ladybug landed on the valentine, lingering there before flying out the open window. 

“Maybe it came from Ladybug.” Jeanne suggested. “That could have been an omen.”

“Oh please.” Plagg rolled his eyes. Jeanne and Adrien exchanged looks and started laughing.


	11. Horrificator

The first thing Jeanne woke up to was Shii frantically grabbing at her shoulder. 

“We need to go.” He said. “I’m not feeling so good.”

“What’s wrong?” She blinked blearily and sat up. It wasn’t like him to be this jittery.

“That akuma might’ve done something to me. I wanna find Wayzz and his master.”

“Who’s Wayzz?”

“He’s the oldest of us. His holder always knows what to do when something goes wrong. Please, I’m not feeling good.” Shii was pleading, holding onto her collar. 

“Okay. Okay.” She stood and cradled him in her hands. “Just let me get dressed and we’ll go.” Shii calmed down a little but remained jittery as Jeanne got dressed and slipped him into her shirt pocket. 

“We’ll start at Adrien’s school, okay? Adrien said he got his Miraculous after helping an old man near the school, so maybe Wayzz is there.”

“Okay.” 

Jeanne went downstairs, going to Nathalie to explain where she was going. She gave some vague excuse as to why she wanted to go, citing needing some fresh air. 

“If you’re going to Adrien’s school, could you bring him his lunch?” Nathalie asked, handing Jeanne a bag. “He forgot it here and I’m too swamped to take it myself. Your father has five meetings lined up today.”

“Of course.” Jeanne took the bag, and headed for Adrien’s school. In the back of her mind, she wondered if Dr. Delacroix had said something to her father because she hadn’t been chewed out for not staying in the house. She supposed that was a good thing. As much as she disliked sessions with Dr. Delacroix, he did seem to understand her in a way very few people did. Her mother had always said that was what a good therapist should be. 

As she arrived at the school, she remembered Adrien’s class was shooting a movie. 

“Maybe not the best time.” She said, turning to go back home. “They’ll probably be really busy. I can’t ask Adrien about the old man.”

“Let’s just look around.” Shii said. “I mean, I am feeling a bit better, but I still wanna see if I can find any clues.”

“But they’re shooting a movie right now! I can’t just interrupt Adrien! He has the lead role! Maybe I should just drop off the lunch and leave.” 

“Pleeeaaase? It might be good to have the support. If you can’t find him, that’s okay. But I would like to try.” 

“Fine.” Jeanne took a few deep breaths and put on a sunny smile before pushing open the door to Adrien’s classroom. 

“Jeanne!” Adrien ran over when he saw her, making Nino groan. “What are you doing here?” The rest of the class stopped what they were doing to look at the eldest Agreste child. 

“Nathalie said you forgot your lunch.” Jeanne said, holding out the bag. “Plus, I wanted to see how your movie was going. Couldn’t miss my little brother’s leading role, now could I?” She resisted the urge to ruffle his hair given that everyone was watching. 

“It’d be nice to have more help.” Nino said. “We’re kinda short-staffed.” 

“I’d love to help.” And so Jeanne was roped into assisting in the production. Mostly she provided refreshments, along with Rose and Juleka. She really did like those two girls. Rose kept asking if she wanted a snack or if she was hydrated. She was such a mother hen. Jeanne couldn’t help but enjoy it though. It reminded her of her mother. As they all bustled around, she looked for any sign of the turtle kwami. Backpacks, shirt pockets, purses. Anywhere she could imagine a kwami would hide. She had little luck, only succeeding in spotting Tikki and Plagg. Shii stayed out of sight, lapsing into sleep. Jeanne settled on a chair in the back of the room, sighing to herself. So Wayzz didn’t belong to one of Adrien’s classmates. This had been a waste of time. Maybe she should have stayed home. Well, getting out was always good. Dr. Delacroix had been suggesting she be more independent. A scream startled her out of her thoughts, sending her reaching for her ring. Fortunately it was only Mylène. This had to be the tenth take. The poor girl was just scared stiff of that monster mask, wasn’t she?

“You’re playing a hero from the special forces! You’re not supposed to get all freaked out.” Nino said. His patience was obviously running thin. 

“I know, but...That monster mask he’s wearing is so...realistic and scary.” Mylène shuddered. 

“Just big ol’ me, Mylène. Nothing to be scared of.” Ivan assured her, pulling up the mask to smile. 

“If you ask me, he doesn’t even need a mask!” Chloè sneered before bursting into high pitched laughter with Sabrina. 

“Chloè!” Jeanne stalked down to where the blonde heiress was. “Apologize this instant!” 

“Why? I’m only telling the truth.” Chloè tossed her hair. “He’s ugly and Mylène’s a pathetic scaredy-cat.”

“Chloè, I do not have time for this. Apologize.” Mylène and Ivan were some of the sweetest kids she’d ever met. They deserved Chloè’s abuse even less than the rest of the class did. 

“No way! It’s totally-”

“Apologize. Now.” Jeanne’s tone lowered considerably, dropping to an almost masculine register. Her eyes were tinted purple, the pupils slitted almost like a cat’s. 

“I-I’m sorry.” Chloè said quickly.

“Good.” Jeanne drew back, her voice and eyes returning to normal. “That’s better, isn’t it?”

“Jeanne, are you feeling okay?” Adrien asked. “That was...really weird.” His sister blinked, bringing a hand to her head. 

“Did I say something strange?”

“Epic, Chloè! Just epic!” Nino snapped, diverting everyone’s attention. “What are we supposed to do without our leading actress?!” While Jeanne had been intimidating Chloè, Mylène had run off to cry in the bathroom. Ivan had run after her, but was back now, glaring at Chloè. 

“Whatever.” Chloè muttered, careful not to say anything to upset Jeanne. “Just have someone else do it.”

“What, are you going to say you want to do it?” Marinette folded her arms. Jeanne was also surprised Chloè had’t jumped on the opportunity. Then again, she had just scared the crap out of the mayor’s daughter. 

“This is stupid! Why would I want to be in it?” Chloè sat down, refusing to look at anyone. 

“Well someone needs to take Mylène’s part.” Nino said. “We only have the school til, like, six!”

“Why don’t you let Marinette do it?” Jeanne asked. Marinette seemed a decent choice for a replacement, assuming Mylène didn’t turn into an akuma and disrupt filming even more. Not to mention the girl had a good head on her shoulders. She could certainly act, what with hiding her identity as Ladybug. 

“W-What?” Marinette went bright red. “I can’t act! I’m the producer!”

“Just do it.” Jeanne pushed her not so gently towards Adrien. “I’ll go look for Mylène.” That was the end of the discussion. Jeanne slipped out of the classroom again, but not before Chloè had a chance to follow. 

“What’s wrong with you?” Chloè asked once they were away from the classroom. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jeanne said icily. 

“Something’s wrong with you.” Chloè insisted. “I want to know what it is.”

“It’s not like you to care about someone else.”

“It’s different when it’s you! It’s always different when it’s you!” 

“I’m fine, Chloè.”

“No you’re not! You’re acting weird! Even Adrien thinks so!” Chloè stomped her foot. “Tell me what’s going on!” Jeanne stopped walking just short of the girl’s bathroom. A trail of purple slime led out of the room and into the hallway. A pool of it was in the middle of the hallway and it seemed to be growing. 

“Tell me what’s going on!” Chloè demanded. 

“Chloè, this is not the time.” Jeanne held out an arm to stop her from going any further. “That. What is that stuff?”

“How should I know?” Chloè asked, folding her arms. “It’s totally gross! And don’t try to distract me!”

“I’m not distracting you!” Jeanne snapped. “That’s not normal!” A low growl echoed from above them. Slowly, the two girls looked up.

Screams echoed through the hallways. Chloè was sent running back to the classroom. Jeanne just stared up at the creature clinging to the ceiling. Out of all the things she’d seen during her time as Blanc, this was definitely pretty up there. She felt all positivity draining out of her at the sight of the akumatized Mylène. She knew she was supposed to be afraid, supposed to scream. She just found herself too tired to muster up any of that emotion. The creature was a little surprised it wasn’t eliciting fear, but covered her in goo anyway. She felt herself being dragged somewhere before her cocoon was hung up. 

“What the hell, kid?!” Shii demanded in a low whisper. “Why’d you let yourself get captured like that?! I gave you power for a reason!”

“This whole thing was a waste of time.” Jeanne muttered, hugging her knees. “We couldn’t find Wayzz, everyone thinks I’m acting weird...Maybe this whole thing was a mistake. Maybe I’m not cut out for this.”

“Kid, come on.” Shii perched himself on her knee. “You don’t mean that, do you?”

“Of course I do. I’m no hero.”

“You don’t have to be a hero. As long as you’re not hurting anyone, I’m fine with whatever you do. I’m just here to help.” 

“I don’t even know how to use my powers!”

“Well, there’s no time like the present.” Shii said. “You wanna try it out now?” 

Jeanne blinked. “Isn’t it a bad idea to transform before we know what Dark Cupid did to you?”

“I told you I was feeling better.” Shii waved a paw dismissively. “Whatever that guy did, I think it’s worn off now. Besides, when have I ever done something that’s a good idea?” He had a point there. It was worth a try at the very least. She was finding she didn’t like being cooped up in a cocoon. It was sticky too. 

“Okay. Let’s go.” 

The space became considerably more cramped once Blanc was out. His legs were a bit longer than Jeanne’s, meaning he was practically squashed in the cocoon. Now he just needed to get out. He rolled over and pressed his hand to the bottom of the cocoon, trying to gag as his hand sunk into the goo. 

“Void.” He said. His hand glowed purple and the cocoon vanished, depositing him squarely on the floor. Face first of course. 

“Ooow.” Jeanne groaned and sat up, Shii floating near her head. 

“Void? That was the best you could think of?” He said, tails whipping around in apparent annoyance. 

“Well what else am I supposed to call it?” Jeanne dusted herself off. “It was the only thing I could think of!”

“It’s called the Kronos Touch.”

“The Kronos Touch.” 

“I named it myself!”

“Of course you did.” It seemed about as cheesy as she’d expected from him. She did like it though. “Let’s just go home now. They’ll be by soon to fix everything.”

“Yeah, okay.” Shii shrugged. “We can look for Wayzz again tomorrow. I really am feeling better.” She knew that was more to comfort her than anything else.  It was then that Mylène returned. Jeanne became Blanc again and put up his hands. 

“Easy there tiger.” He smiled disarmingly. “I’m not here to hurt you.” Horrificator frowned and shrunk back. Even in this form, Mylène was wary of the villain. Hawkmoth didn’t trust Blanc either. Just then Ladybug and Chat burst in, their classmates close behind. Horrificator immediately snapped its focus to them, swatting Blanc out of the way with one hand. He hit the wall and crumpled down. Thank God for the invulnerability Miraculouses provided. He didn’t want to go to the hospital again. They were starting to call her by her first name when she showed up. 

“Ladybug? Is that Ladybug?” Chloè’s voice came from one of the cocoons. “It’s me, Chloè Bourgeois! Get us out of here!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll get you down.” Ladybug said. 

“Hurry up!” Chloè whined. Blanc didn’t blame her this time. Those cocoons were kinda gross. 

“I’ll get them down. You deal with her.” Blanc picked himself up, dusting his suit off. 

“What made you want to help again?” Chat asked, dodging balls of Horrificator’s slime. 

“I felt like it.” Blanc winked. More than anything, he just didn’t want to hurt the girl. Mylène needed help and he had no right to interfere in her healing process. Chloè was already in a cocoon. There was no one else to take revenge on. He hopped up to the ceiling, activating the Kronos Touch and running along the pipes to get all the cocoons. Soon everyone was safely on the ground. Somehow Ladybug had managed to acquire guitar strings, likely from her Lucky Charm. 

“What are you going to do with those?” Blanc asked, noting the flashing of the butterfly wings in his ring. 

“We’re going to play Mylène’s special song.” Ladybug explained as she rigged up a makeshift guitar. Chat was making drums out of some trash cans. 

“Sounds nice. Good luck with it.”

“You’re not going to stay and help?” Chat frowned. 

“Nah, kid.” Blanc shook his head. “I already used my power. I’ll be turning back soon. Don’t want any of you to learn my secret identity.” He then disappeared into the rafters, only for Jeanne to appear behind a trashcan. She waited to come out until everything had gone back to normal. The first thing Adrien did when he saw her was grab her and hold her tight, babbling about how scared he’d been that he’d lost her. Then he yelled at her for going off on her own. 

“I wasn’t alone.” She said, trying not to groan. “Chloè was there.”

“Yeah, but Chloè’s not good at keeping people safe.” Adrien folded his arms. “Don’t do that again! You had me worried!”

“Fine fine.” Jeanne rolled her eyes. “I’ll be careful.” Part of her seethed at being treated as though she couldn’t defend herself. Then again, it was normal. 

“Adrien! Dude!” Nino yelled. “We gotta turn this in to the mayor! Come on!”

“Coming!” Adrien yelled back before turning to his sister. “Are you okay getting home on your own?”

“Yeah.” Jeanne took out her phone. “I’ll call Nathalie. It’ll be fine.” Adrien nodded and ran off. Jeanne watched him go, her expression settling into calm indifference. How much longer could she keep this up? He had to suspect something. Oh well, that was a worry for another day. Tomorrow she’d go out again to find Wayzz. Shii stayed nestled in her pocket the whole way home, asleep and content. It seemed like he really was okay. But it wasn’t him that they had to worry about. It was her. 


	12. Darkblade

Jeanne woke up to her brother shaking her vigorously. While this in itself wasn’t unusual, Adrien’s expression made her a bit worried. He looked scared.

“Dad wants to see you.” He whispered. 

“What?!” She sat up abruptly. “This early in the morning?!”

“I know!” He glanced back at the door. “You didn’t do something wrong, did you?”

“Well...I’ve been going out more.” She started chewing on her nails. “You don’t think he’s angry about that?” That was probably it. Their parents had always tried to keep them close to home, overreacting if they went out on their own. Jeanne could understand why they’d be afraid, given their standing. There were always people out to hurt or exploit the children of famous people. Their parents had always taken it a bit far though. 

“Maybe.” 

“I...I’m sure it won’t be too big.” Jeanne forced herself to smile. “I’ll be at your fencing lesson, okay? I need to practice drawing movement again.”

“Okay.” Adrien left the room, Plagg sitting on his shoulder. 

“You’re in trouble~” Shii said in a sing-song voice. 

“Oh hush.” Jeanne swatted at him as she got dressed. Her hands were shaking. Her father hadn’t asked to see her for a long time. What could it mean that he wanted to see her now? Once she was dressed, she made her way to her father’s office. Her heart pounded as she opened the door. 

“Hello? Father?” She said, her voice small. “You wanted to see me.”

“Yes.” Gabriel stood at his desk, his back to the door and his daughter. “Have a seat.” She sat down in one of the chairs in front of his desk. He turned and sat in his own chair, resting his chin on his steepled fingers. 

“I’ve been speaking with Dr Delacroix,” he began, already making her heart beat even faster. “And he has suggested that it would be best if you went out more.”

“He....He has?” Immediately she felt a twinge of hope. 

Gabriel nodded. “He believes it will help you if you have more contact with the world outside, and with your friends. It seems you’ve already been taking the initiative though.”

“I was getting lonely.” Jeanne admitted. “The only people I ever see are the people in the house.”

“I know.” Gabriel sighed and looked up at her. “So stubborn. Just like your mother.” There it was again. He always said that.  _ Just like your mother.  _ She wasn’t her mother. 

“In any case, Adrien’s class is holding elections for Class Representative tomorrow. I thought you could go and help the children out.” He cleared his throat. “That’s all.”

“Of course, father.” Jeanne couldn’t help but smile a little bit. “I’ll do my best.” She stood up and left the office, internally breathing a sigh of relief. Well, that had gone better than she’d thought it would. Of course, the Class Representative elections were a different matter altogether. She had no doubt Chloè was running opposed, as usual. She’d been the class representative since she’d been in kindergarten, as Chloè so often bragged. 

“Adrien?” She knocked on her brother’s door. “Looks like I’m coming to school with you.”

“Why?” Adrien’s voice was muffled, so she just opened the door. He was brushing his teeth in the bathroom. 

“Delacroix convinced Dad to let me go out more.” Jeanne said, settling on Adrien’s bed. “So he says I need to go help with the class representative election.”

“It’s kinda pointless.” Adrien spat the toothpaste into the sink. “Chloè’s going to win. She always does.”

“Well, maybe we can change things this year.” Jeanne smiled wickedly. 

“Jeannette noooo.” Adrien groaned. “I don’t want Chloè to throw a tantrum in the middle of class.”

“She idolizes me. I can do something.”

“Yeah, but there’s a limit to how much sway you can have over her.” Adrien said. 

“Well, we’ll see.” 

And so they headed to Collège Françoise Dupont. Jeanne explained the situation to Miss Bustier, who was more than happy to have the extra help for the election. Even she knew how much of a little terror Chloè could be when it came to this. 

“You came to watch me win!” Chloè chirped. 

“I came to help with the election.” Jeanne gently corrected her. “You know, maybe you should let someone else have a chance at being the class representative. It’s not fair for you to always be in charge.”

“But there’s no one better.” Chloè said, flipping her hair. “I was born to lead. That’s just how it is. You get it, right?”

“In all honesty, no.” Jeanne drifted away to sit beside Miss Bustier’s desk. She was getting tired just being in the same room as Chloè. This always happened. 

“Alright, class.” Miss Bustier called, everyone taking their seats. “I would like to remind you that the elections for class representative are tomorrow, as Miss Agreste’s presence clearly shows. Chloè is running for the class representative position and Sabrina will be her deputy. Do we have any other candidates?” Kim began to raise his hand, but one look from Chloè and Sabrina shut him down. 

“Yes, Kim?” Miss Bustier looked at him. 

“Um...Nothing.” He mumbled, putting his hand down. Just then Marinette burst in, practically tripping over herself in her hurry to get to her seat, blurting out a myriad of excuses. 

Miss Bustier sighed heavily. “Alright, I’ll give you all until the end of lunch to decide if you’d like to be a candidate.”

And so the day continued, with Jeanne assisting the teacher in whatever way she could. She was actually rather happy in doing this. It gave her some kind of purpose and her presence kept Chloè from doing anything too unsavoury. Unfortunately, Chloè was still blackmailing the members of her class in order to keep them from running against her. That was a headache all its own for Jeanne. She stayed in the classroom as the students went out to lunch, expecting things to go downhill fast. She ate her lunch, packed for her by Nathalie. 

“Aren’t you lonely in here?” Adrien asked, hovering in the doorway. 

“Well, it would be weird for me to eat with your friends.” She replied. “I’d just make them uncomfortable.”

“Dude! Rose wants to do your sister’s hair!” Nino yelled up from the courtyard. “Get her down here!”

“Or not.” Adrien smirked and folded his arms. 

“Wipe that stupid look off your face.” Jeanne gently shoved her brother as he left. She made her way down the stairs and settled herself in front of Rose, who happily began to braid the older girl’s hair. 

“Marinette is going to run against Chloè!” Rose said. “It’s so exciting!”

“She is?”

“She said she’ll get us comfier chairs! I can’t wait!” 

Well, that was certainly a step up. Jeanne smiled to herself. Maybe Marinette would be able to fix things on a smaller level. Of course, the girl had her own problems she needed to deal with, such as her quick to judge nature. Maybe Jeanne could step in, teach her a few things. No...That wouldn’t work. She was too angry herself to ever properly guide someone else. 

“Are you okay?” Rose asked. Jeanne had begun mumbling to herself, playing with her ring while she did so. 

“I’m fine.” Jeanne said quickly. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Do you really think Marinette could win?” Nathanael asked. He’d set up shop beside Jeanne, sketching away. 

“Beats me. How good of a leader is she?” Jeanne let her act drop. She trusted Nathanael and the others not to go blabbing. 

“She’s pretty flighty.” Nino admitted. 

“And she’s always late.” Alix pointed out, snickering at the memories of watching Marinette skid into the classroom with some new excuse. 

“Anyone’s better than Chloè.” Ivan said, pulling Mylène a little closer. 

“That’s a very dangerous thing to say.” Jeanne’s voice was soft, a strange gleam entering her eyes. The kids immediately backed up a bit. 

“Jeanne? Are you okay?” Adrien asked. 

“I’m fine.” She looked up at him. “Why?” In an instant, the gleam was gone and she seemed ordinary again. 

“Um...Okay.” That had been weird. 

The rest of the day went by without incident, and Jeanne was dragged to fencing practice with Adrien. It was her first time in the class in a long time. Her father had forbidden her from going after her “accident”, fearing she might hurt herself again. But now she was back in the fencing studio. 

“Ah, Miss Agreste. You’ve returned. Will you be taking the first turn?” D’Argencourt asked. 

“Would that be alright, Adrien?” Jeanne looked back at her brother. She was so excited to be able to do this again.

“Go ahead.” He sat down cross-legged at the edge of the mat. Jeanne grabbed a fencing foil and squared off against D’Argencourt. Unfortunately, she was defeated within minutes. It had been a long time since she’d fenced, after all. She ended up on the floor with a fencing foil at her throat. 

“Wow, Mr. D’Argencourt, never seen you on fire like this!” Adrien said, jumping up. “That was some attack!”

“It ought to be.” D’Argencourt said. “That particular manoeuvre hither was developed by my ancestor, Darkblade.”

“Darkblade?” Jeanne pulled off her fencing mask and shook her hair out.

“In the days of yore, Darkblade conquered Paris and ruled over it with an iron fist. Until he was overthrown vence by a wealthy Frenchman who used his dirty gold to buy the loyalties of the common people. To think that not so long ago, my ancestor's flag was waving above Paris...” D’Argencourt sighed. 

“Is that why you ran in the election, Mr D’Argencourt?” Nadja Chamack jumped in, appearing almost out of nowhere. “To seek revenge on your ancestor’s behalf?”

“All affair! Who dost we have hither?” 

“Nadja Chamack.” The reporter said brightly. “Don't be bemused, it's just the news! Do you have anything to say about your quote un-quote landslide defeat?” D’Argencourt tightened his grip on the rapier, obviously upset. Thankfully, it was then that an employee of the school caught sight of the news team. 

“Hey, you! Excuse me! How did you get in the school?” He demanded, stalking over. Nadja and her team beat a hasty retreat. 

“Here endeth the lesson.” D’Argencourt said before stalking away. 

“He’s going to get akumatized, isn’t he?” Jeanne sighed, tucking her helmet under her arm. 

“Aw man.” Adrien groaned. “I just wanted my fencing lesson.”

“Go on, get outta here.” Jeanne gently pushed him towards the door. “You have a city to save and our fencing teacher to calm down.” Adrien nodded, transformed, and left to deal with D’Argencourt. 

“Which thing do you want to deal with first?” Shii popped his head out of Jeanne’s bag. “You wanna do the election or D’Argencourt?”

“Election first.” Jeanne said. “But we’re gonna do it as Blanc. I want to call Chloè out on her bullshit.”

“Fair enough.” Shii winked and they transformed. Blanc hopped over the rooftops. He’d heard Chloè was going to be holding a Jagged Stone autograph signing at city hall, with her father’s help of course. Ah, nepotism at its finest. Somehow, he wasn’t surprised. Sure enough, when he got to the hotel Jagged Stone was sitting at a folding table, the kids of Chloè’s class gathered around. 

“Why am I not surprised?” Blanc dropped down onto the table Jagged was using to sign autographs. “Great abuse of power Chloè, Mayor Bourgeois.” 

“Not you! Get out of here!” Chloè made a shooing motion. “I’m doing something!”

“Uh huh. You’re like, what, 14?” Blanc flicked her forehead. “Don’t you think this is a bit much for some stupid Class Representative position?”

“It’s none of your business!”

“Chat Blanc!” Alya waved her hand. “I’d love an interview for the Ladyblog! The villain gets to tell his side of the story. What do you say?”

“Maybe a little later kiddo.” Blanc said. “I promise.” The kids started crowding around him, asking questions, touching his tail and ears. Apparently, after the Horrificator incident, they weren’t as afraid of him. 

“Hey, easy, kids.”

“What’s this?” Nathanael grabbed Blanc’s hand and pointed to his ring. “It looks like the butterfly is moving.”

“Don’t touch that!” Blanc jerked his hand away as though he’d been burned. 

“What the-” Blanc’s head snapped around to see Marinette standing in the doorway. Ah, she’d likely come over to try and stop Chloè as well. 

“Perfect timing.” Blanc forced himself to smile. “You wanna tell Chloè off for bribing her classmates?”

“Why do you even care?” Marinette asked, more than a little peeved at the experience of the villain. 

“I’m not a fan of nepotism or abuse of power.” Blanc shrugged. “Plus, this little spat affects the whole class, who I’ve grown rather fond of.” Chloè stood in the back of the crowd, fuming. How dare this stupid cat show up and try to ruin her party?! Her mood quickly changed, though, when Sabrina showed up with Marinette’s diary clamped around her hand. This didn’t escape Blanc’s notice, but he had more pressing matters to attend to. He could see Darkblade approaching in the distance. 

“Marinette, I think there’s something you need to see.” He pointed to Darkblade, who had just reached the city hall steps. 

“Oye, oye! Darkblade shall speak now!” One of the knights declared. 

“Look out Mayor, he’s here for you.” Blanc said. A number of students and Mayor Bourgeois crept over to the open doors and peeked out at the assortment of knights headed by Darkblade. 

“Henceforth, my flag shalt fly over thy kingdom! Bourgois, pathetic knave, come hither and do battle!” Darkblade declared, pointing his sword at the mayor. 

“What did he say?” Mayor Bourgeois whispered. 

“Basically, he’s gonna bust you up.” Alya explained. 

“Told you.” Blanc said. 

“Ehh....Ask my secretary for an appointment!” Then the doors were slammed in the face of the deranged knight. Blanc backed up, looking around for ways to possibly to barricade the door. The kids didn’t deserve to get turned into knights because Chloè’s dad had messed up. Jagged was still signing autographs behind them, completely shut off to everyone else.  When he heard the sound of fighting from outside though, he looked up. 

“Wait, do I hear the sounds of crazed fans?” He picked up his guitar. “I can totally get them under control.” Blanc almost wanted to stop the musician as he made his way outside. Almost. It was like there was nothing between those very pierced ears of his. 

“Well, he’s a goner.” Blanc sighed. “Now, who wants to form a plan?”

“The doors, quickly!” Marinette said. 

“The doors, quickly!” Chloè copied her. 

“Quick, Chloè!”

“Quick, Chloè!” Chloè repeated, before realizing she’d been duped and closing the doors with everyone else. The students were in a panic, chattering amongst themselves. Where had Marinette gone? She could probably calm around everyone down. Thankfully the panic distracted from the fact that Adrien wasn’t there. They could hear the knights getting closer. Chloè had decided to hide behind the reception desk.

**“** Kim, Ivan, lock the doors! Make sure all the windows are closed too, quickly!” Marinette appeared at the top of the stairs, a commanding presence about her. The two boys did as they were told. 

**“** Nino, Juleka, Rose, Mylène and Alya, you come with me!”

**“** Good job, girl! Now there's a future class representative in the making.” Alya said, looking to Chloè smugly.

**“** Well, I was going to say the exact same thing. Sabrina, Ivan, Kim, go lock the doors!” Chloè said. Outside, the knights had begun trying to break down the door. 

**“** We have to barricade the entrance!” The students started gathering up the posters of Jagged Stone that had been set up all over the lobby and putting them in front of the door, along with chairs, plants, and anything else they could find.

**“** Hurry! I hope they haven't got too medieval on Cat Noir!” Nino said. 

**“** It's time to retreat! Sir, we gotta get out of here!” Marinette said, looking at the mayor. 

**“** This way!” Mayor Bourgeois gestured to the kids, leading them to a safe location. 

**“** I'll catch up with you guys! I'll make sure all the windows are closed first!” Marinette said, going the other way.  

“Well, looks like it’s my turn.” Blanc scampered up the stairs and out the window, joining Chat in the fray. 

“Where’ve you been?” Chat demanded. “And are you fighting us this time?”

“Nah.” A rapier appeared in Blanc’s hand as he went back to back with Chat. “This time I think I’m gonna be working with you. I don’t like people who turn others into their slaves.”

“Need a little help, boys?” Ladybug dropped her yo-yo down. Chat grabbed the yo-yo and Blanc grabbed the line. The two were pulled out of reach of the frustrated knights. 

“So you’re with us this time.” Ladybug said as the two cats scrambled to safety. 

“The whole ‘turning people into knights’ stuff doesn’t sit well with me.” Blanc said, shrugging. “So, what’re we gonna do?” Just then a knight came flying and smacked into the wall outside the window. 

“Why’re they headed to the roof??” Chat asked as another knight collided with the wall. “Well, at least some of them.”

“The flag!” Ladybug gasped. Oh yeah, that was right. D’Argencourt was obsessed with his ancestor ruling Paris. Blanc tried not to groan as he saw Darkblade getting into the catapult he’d created. He was going for it.

“Right, his ancestor used to rule Paris.” He sighed. “We should probably stop him before he puts the flag up. Bad things’ll happen when he does. Probably.”

“The akuma must be in his sword. Things transform after he knights them.” Ladybug said. 

“How are we gonna get ahold of it?” 

“By getting me close to him.” Ladybug twirled her yo-yo and latched it onto Darkblade’s arm, bringing herself up to the roof where he was. Blanc and Chat followed. 

“Chat, Blanc, don’t let him get the banner up!” Ladybug yelled, wrestling with Darkblade for the sword. Blanc grinned and swung into a group of knights trying to build a ladder up to the flagpole. They went down like bowling pins. Chat, not to be outdone, took down an even bigger group of knights. 

“Cute.” Blanc laughed. Unfortunately, their efforts were in vain. Darkblade had managed to climb up to the flagpole. 

“Villains!” He proclaimed. “Thou impress me not! By the blade of darkness, I hereby declare all peoples of this kingdom are henceforth mine!” He placed his flag and a pillar of darkness appeared in the sky, spreading out to touch the whole city of Paris. Wherever the darkness went, people turned into Darkblade’s knights. This was, of course, not good.

“We have to do something!” Ladybug shouted. “Blanc! Can you stop that flag?”

“I can try, but I don’t know how long it’ll last.” Blanc admitted. “I only ever tried on it Mylène’s weird goo cocoons. There’s no guarantee it’s going to work.”

“We have to try.” 

So Blanc hopped up to where Darkblade stood proudly next to his flag. He grinned at the knight, reaching for the flag. He was almost daring Darkblade to stop him, to do something. The other villain didn’t react quickly enough and Blanc’s hand closed around the flag. 

“Kronos Touch.” The flag exploded into black dust and the dark circle faded. 

“Foul creature!” Darkblade roared. 

“You’re up, Ladybug.” Blanc jumped down. “I gotta run.” He hopped through a window before turning back. Jeanne brushed her dress off and looked around. It’d probably be a couple minutes before Darkblade would be defeated. Until then she’d need to hide. She ducked into a closet and waited until she felt the familiar glow of Lucky Charm wash over her. 

“Jeanne? Jeanne, are you here?” She heard her brother calling.

“Adrien?” She pretended to be dazed, stumbling out of the closet. “What am I doing here?”

“You got knighted, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.” She laughed nervously. “I tried to sneak out the back, but he caught me.”

“Let’s get you home.” Adrien hooked an arm around her and led her down the stairs. 

“Jeannette!” Chloè ran over, wrapping her arms around the older girl. “It was so terrible! We got turned into knights!”

“So did we.” Jeanne tried not to push Chloè away. 

“It was a knight-mare.” Adrien said. Jeanne rolled her eyes. As always, he just had to sneak a pun in. Such a dork. 

“I got turned into a knight too.” Marinette appeared behind the two of them. “And now that this is all over, I want my stuff back.”

“Chloè, what’s she talking about?” Jeanne asked as the rest of Adrien’s classmates began to gather around them. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Chloè folded her arms. Sabrina, however, did. She barrelled out of the crowd, waving her trapped hand above her head. 

“Oh, yes! Please take it off!” She begged. Marinette took out a key and unlocked the box, proving to everyone that Sabrina had indeed stolen Marinette’s personal items. And since Sabrina didn’t do much of anything without approval, it was obvious Chloè was behind it. 

“Got an explanation, Chloè?” Alya asked, taking out her phone. 

“Yes, Chloè, please explain.” Jeanne tried not to smile at Chloè getting her comeuppance. The girl needed to learn that her actions had consequences. As Chloè tried to defend herself, and Marinette made a rousing speech, Adrien took his sister home. It had been a long day. The two of them both wanted to go home. Jeanne collapsed onto her bed and slept like a rock the rest of the night. She was thrilled to hear that Marinette had won the election the next day but prepared herself for the slew of texts from Chloè complaining about the whole thing. Honestly, the girl was better than this. 


	13. The Mime

Jeanne was on her phone, watching her interview for the Ladyblog on repeat. She still couldn’t believe she’d actually agreed to something like this. Although, she had become Blanc so she could do as she liked. 

“Have you seen this?” Adrien slammed the door open. “Chat Blanc did an interview on the Ladyblog! I can’t believe him!”

“I can’t believe it either.” Jeanne said, eyes glued to the phone screen. “I’ve been watching it on repeat all night.”

“No! Don’t give him views!” Adrien whined, trying to wrestle the phone away from her. 

“I can’t stop watching it.” Her eyes remained on the space her phone had been, even after Adrien had taken it away. She couldn’t believe she’d done this. 

_ “Now people will know who we are. What we do.” _ Shii had said. Somehow, she felt a surge of pride. People would know her name now. Now she was starting to feel better about the interview. Alya had been pretty excited too. 

“Why did Alya decide to interview him anyway?” Adrien said, peering down at Jeanne’s phone. 

“He seems like a decent guy.” Jeanne said, shrugging. “And you know Alya gets excited about anything involving superheroes.”

Adrien stopped and stared at her. “Wait, are you actually defending him?”

“Bro, I said he seemed like a decent guy. That’s the bare minimum of a compliment.” She rolled her eyes. She’d kept the interview pretty tame, just outlining her reasons for doing what she’d done. Blanc wasn’t a hero, but he wasn’t a villain either. He served whoever he wanted to. He was selfish, but he wanted to help those who had been wronged. 

“What do you think of him?” She asked, spreading herself out on her bed. 

“Well...” Adrien hesitated. “He’s not a terrible guy. He seems like he really cares about a lot of the villains, but he’s also helped us more than once. I....I don’t really know what to think of him.” At least he didn’t outright hate Blanc. And it didn’t seem like he’d ever find out the identity of Chat Blanc. She loved her brother, but he was so clueless. 

“Okay, let’s move on from Mr Kitty.” Jeanne yawned. “Isn’t today the day of Mylène’s dad’s show?”

“Oh yeah!” Adrien scrambled to his room and back, holding a pair of tickets. “Dad got us tickets to Mr Haprèle’s play!”

“In an attempt to buy our love no doubt.” Jeanne muttered, her expression darkening. “He promised he’d show up, right? Bet you he doesn’t show, like always.”

“Jeannette...Are you okay?” Adrien said. 

“I’m fine.”

“You sure?”

“I said I’m fine!” Adrien jumped back at the sudden yelling. Jeanne’s expression immediately changed to one of guilt. 

“Oh my god. I’m sorry.” She said, reaching out to touch his arm. He flinched away and retreated to his room. Jeanne dropped her hand and grabbed Shii. 

“I’m going to the art gallery.” Jeanne said to Nathalie as she descended the stairs.  

“Would you like me to come too?” Nathalie asked. 

“That would be nice.” 

So the two of them went to the car and out to the Louvre. The car ride over was mostly silent. Jeanne didn’t want to talk and Nathalie could very clearly tell the elder Agreste was very clearly not okay. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Nathalie asked. 

“Yeah, sure, okay.” Jeanne shrugged. 

“So, what happened, Jeanne?” 

“I got pissed off at Dad and Adrien kept asking me if I was okay, and I just snapped at him.” She was trying not to cry. “I didn’t mean to...But he looked so hurt and I- And I-” She trailed off. 

“These things happen.” Nathalie assured her. “Siblings fight, Jeanne. The two of you will be alright.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Jeanne, I’ve been taking care of you and Adrien for years. I know you. You’re both going to be okay.” Nathalie reached over and put a hand on Jeanne’s shoulder. “And if you aren’t alright, I’ll help make things right.” Jeanne’s lip quivered and she broke down crying. Nathalie held her close as she cried. Nathalie would always be there for the Agreste family, no matter what happened. Nathalie was family. Jeanne cried into Nathalie’s chest for a few minutes before the two of them left the car and went into the gallery. Jeanne hung on to Nathalie’s arm, still feeling a bit vulnerable. Nathalie didn’t try to make her charge say anything. She knew better than to push. Once Jeanne was feeling better, the two of them went home. Adrien was still sulking in his room. 

“Adrien.” Jeanne knocked on his door. “Adrien, I want to apologize.” 

“Go away.” 

“Don’t be like this.”

“I said go away.”

“Adrien, I feel really bad about this!” She knocked harder on the door. “Please, I don’t want to go to Mr Haprèle’s show angry!” It was quiet, then Adrien opened the door a crack. 

“Fine.” He said, opening the door fully. “But only because I don’t want you to be sulking the whole time.”

“Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” Jeanne launched herself onto Adrien, hugging him tightly. She almost dislodged Shii from her shirt pocket but thankfully didn’t. 

“Jeanne!” Adrien whined. “Stop hugging me! I’m trying to be tough!”

“Oh hush, you’re a kitten.”

“Jeanne!”

A few minutes later they were in the car and on their way to the show. The second they’d gotten in, Nathalie had received a call. Jeanne didn’t need to guess to know who was on the other end. 

“Yes, sir. Understood, sir. I’m sure he’ll understand, sir.” Nathalie said. 

“My dad’s flaking, isn’t he?” Adrien sighed. “Let me guess. Something came up?”

“Something always comes up.” Jeanne muttered. 

“Yes, but he reserved the best seats in the house for you two.” Nathalie said. “Front row.”

“The best money can buy.” Jeanne and Adrien said together. Suddenly the car slammed to a stop, jostling the passengers. A moment later Ladybug appeared along the passenger side. 

“Get out of the place and find a place to hide, I’ll cover you.” Ladybug ordered. Then she turned around and her eyes met Adrien’s. There was such longing in their gazes. Jeanne couldn’t help but feel jealous. She wished she could feel so passionately about someone. The moment was broken when a man who looked like a mime appeared, firing imaginary arrows at Ladybug. 

“I have to transform.” Adrien said. 

“Go on.” Jeanne nudged him. 

“But be careful.” Nathalie added. “And be back in time for the show, alright?”

“Yes, mom.” Adrien rolled his eyes and hopped out of the car. Nathalie watched him go, her lips set in a thin line. 

“He’ll be okay.” Jeanne said, patting Nathalie’s shoulder. “He’s always okay.” 

“But someday he might not be.” Nathalie said. These were her kids and she hated seeing them in danger. Jeanne glanced out the car window to look at the fight between the heroes of Paris and the Mime. She couldn’t sneak out to become Chat Blanc. Not while Nathalie was watching her. Or did Nathalie already know? Nathalie knew everything about the Agreste children. She’d been there for them since they’d been small. Even before Mrs Agreste had disappeared. 

“Nathalie...”

“I’m not going to ask why you’re doing this.” Nathalie said. “I’m not going to tell you I’m disappointed.”

“How long have you known?”

“You thought I wouldn’t notice you sneaking away all the time? Or the little white thing that follows you around? I found him in your sock drawer while you were sleeping.” Nathalie continued. “I wish you both weren’t doing this, but I can’t stop you.” Jeanne just slipped out of the car and transformed. Blanc was soon hopping over rooftops, following the car the Mime was in and the heroes following him. 

“So, where are we headed?” Blanc dropped down to run between Ladybug and Chat. 

“ _ We  _ are not headed anywhere.” Ladybug said coolly. “Chat and I are going after the Mime.”

“Well, I’m here to help the man behind the Mime, so tell me where he’s heading.” Blanc replied. 

“He’s probably going for the tour bus.” Chat said. 

“Thanks, kitten!” Blanc ruffled Chat’s hair and departed for the tour bus. Already, anger was beginning to rise in his chest. Someone had wronged Myène’s father and they were going to pay for doing so. Blanc would make sure of that. 

“Knock knock!” He said, slipping inside the bus. “Just want to warn you there’s a pissed off mime coming your way~”

“What?!” Sarah immediately ran to the window, looking out to see the Mime gaining on them, Ladybug and Chat in tow. 

“You have to be kidding.” Chris mumbled, sinking lower into his seat. 

“Now,” Blanc continued. “I have it on good authority that the angry mime is, in fact, Fred Haprèle. Would either of you happen to know why he’s so angry?”

“Fred? Fred is after us?” Sarah repeated. 

“Yes, that’s what I said.” Blanc tried not to snap. Just then the Mime landed on the roof of the bus. Both Sarah and Chris screamed. Even Blanc was a bit startled. Ladybug and Chat hit the roof soon after and a battle ensued. But Blanc wasn’t particularly interested for the moment. 

“He’s coming for you two and I want to know why.” Blanc folded his arms behind his back. “Now tell me.”

“It’s my fault!” Chris yelled, trying to cover his head. “I took his role from him. But he can perform instead of me! I don’t care anymore! Please, just let Ladybug and Chat Noir keep us safe...”

“What do you mean you took his role from him?” Sarah demanded, rounding on her actor. “He lost it!”

“Not exactly...There’s something I have to tell you.” Chris’ shoulders slumped, and he explained the whole situation to Sarah. Blanc clenched and unclenched his hands, doing all he could to resist the urge throw Chris out of the bus. How many times had Jeanne had things stolen from her by deceitful people? How many times had she seen Chloè do the exact same thing to her poor classmates? People like that made her sick. They had no idea how much their actions hurt the people around them. 

“You’re lucky I’m not going to throw you out of here.” Blanc hissed. 

“You what?!” Blanc turned to see Ladybug and Chat standing behind him.

“I said I’m not going to do it.” Blanc said. “I’m showing great restraint, believe it or not. Now, do you want to know what’s going on or not?”

“Yes, please.” Chat said. 

“Mr Haprèle is angry because Chris over there,” Blanc jerked his thumb back at Chris. “Stole his part. Gave him the wrong location so Sarah would fire him. Now, do you know where the akuma is?”

“In his hat.” Ladybug said, her face set in a stony mask. 

“Great, let’s go.” Blanc started heading for the bus door but Ladybug put out her arm to stop him. 

“No.” Ladybug said. “You shouldn’t be here. You need to go.”

“I said I wasn’t going to hurt him.” Blanc said, drawing himself up to his full height. 

“The fact that you want to hurt a civilian is proof enough that you shouldn’t be doing this.” Ladybug stood firm, staring up at Blanc. “Now leave.”

“Ladybug, it’s not a crime to be angry.” Chat said. “He probably doesn’t mean it.”

“This isn’t just a job for some of us, you know.” Blanc said. “You might see this purely as business, but this is the only time I get to be free. So if you want to force your ideals onto me, then fine. Go ahead. But I’m not giving this up.” He hopped out of the bus, summoned his power, and touched the Mime’s arm. The villain froze, his akumatized form vanishing. He stood there in a daze. 

“This will only last a minute!” Blanc yelled back. “So do your job and get on with it!” Then he was hopping away again, right back to the car. Jeanne was fuming when she sat down across from Nathalie. 

“Do I want to ask?” 

“No, Nathalie, you really don’t.”

Nathalie sighed. “Very well then.”

Adrien joined them in the car a few minutes later.

“You okay?” He asked. 

“Your sister’s been fuming about your father and her inability to help you.” Nathalie explained. “You’re lucky you weren’t here for her rant.”

“You’ve got me here, right?” Adrien smiled hopefully at her. 

“Yeah....I guess I do.” She couldn’t stay mad at that smile. He looked so rattled. She’d probably scared him pretty bad as Blanc. The anger still bubbled deep within her, but she pushed it away. She was going to see a play with Adrien and it was going to be fine. They arrived at the venue and sat down. 

“Hey, aren’t those your friends?” Jeanne twisted in her seat, pointing to Marinette and Alya making their way down the aisle. 

“You’re here too, cool.” Adrien beamed at the girls. “Thought we were going to end up sitting by ourselves.”

“It’s nice to see you both.” Jeanne’s smile was forced as she looked at Marinette. Everything was going to be fine, she said to herself. She just needed to keep her anger in check. 


	14. Princess Fragrance

It had been awhile since Shii had seen Plagg. So while their holders were sleeping, he snuck into Adrien’s room where Plagg was resting. 

“Hey, long time no see.”

“Go away.”

“You’re not still mad, are you Plagg?”

“It’s been a century, I’m not still mad.” Plagg rolled over in his nest of socks. “It’s just the middle of the night, can’t you do this later?”

“This is the only time we can see each other until she gets discovered.” Shii perched himself on the rim of the drawer. 

“Ugh. Fine.” Plagg groaned. “This whole family hates letting me sleep.”

“Yeah, that sounds like them.” Shii snickered. “So, how’ve you been? Like you said, I haven’t seen you in 100 years.”

“You know how it is.” Plagg shrugged. “Just foiling villains, protecting cities, stuff like that. Didn’t think I’d be facing you _ again  _ though. What is it with your holders and being weird antiheroes?” 

Shii shrugged. “They do what they like.”

“Ain’t that the truth.” Plagg rolled his eyes, then grew solemn. “She’s got a lot of anger in her. That could be dangerous. You know that, don’t you?”

“Yeah. I know.” Shii said, shoulders slumping. “I just....”

“You just what?”

“I’m....I’m scared.” 

“What are you scared of?” Plagg asked. “You’re not gonna die. Probably.”

“I’m scared of what she’ll do if I confront her.”

“She’s not like Noroo’s holder. It’ll be fine.”

Shii didn’t believe him.

 

Jeanne was having a moderately alright day. Well, more than moderately alright. Chloè had invited her to come along and meet Prince Ali, who was staying at her father’s hotel, for a charity toy drive. Jeanne had never met a prince before, which was part of her excitement. The other part was the charity toy drive. She’d always loved helping people and she hadn’t been able to go out and do charity work for a while now. 

“What do you think I should wear?” Jeanne asked, half in her closet. Adrien just lounged on her bed

“Adrien?” She poked her head out. “Are you even listening?”

“Mm-hm. That looks nice.” He said. 

“Adrien!” She frowned.

“What?” He looked up. “Oh, um, sorry.”

“What’s up?” She walked over to sit down next to him. “You’ve been acting weird ever since that thing with the Mime.”

“Ladybug just said something to Blanc and....I’m wondering if I should even be a superhero.” Adrien said, avoiding her eyes. 

“Why do you say that?”

“She’s just so serious about all this.” Adrien curled up in a ball. “She’s so cool and so professional and I’m just doing this for my own selfish reasons. I shouldn’t be a hero.”

“Hey now.” Jeanne pulled him up, holding him by the shoulders. “Don’t say that! You’re just as passionate about helping people as she is. The two of you just do things differently. It would be bad if Paris’ superheroes were exactly the same, right?”

“I guess.” Adrien said, shrugging. “But-”

“No buts.” Jeanne said. “You’re doing the best you can, Adrien. You shouldn’t compare yourself to others. That’s where I went wrong.” She held up her wrists, displaying the perpendicular scars running along them. Adrien made her put her arms down. 

“Okay.” He forced himself to smile. “So....You want me to help you pick out an outfit?”

“Yes please~”

The two of them chose a lavender sundress with little pink roses on the skirt, along with black ballet flats. Adrien convinced her to ditch her dead anime mom hairstyle for the event and just wear it down. Chloè’s chauffeur picked her up later that day and took her to the school to pick Chloè up. Jeanne was practically vibrating in her seat. Even if she had to spend the day with Chloè, she was going to be helping people again! The car pulled up in front of the school and Jeanne opened the door. 

“Chloè! Come on!” She yelled. 

“I’m coming! I’m coming!” Chloè yelled back. She came running down the stairs, practically bouncing as well. She stopped, however, just short of the car door. She leaned down and picked something up. 

“What kind of stuffed animal is this? Who left this here?” She held the thing between her index finger and thumb. 

“What the-” Jeanne poked her head out, then stifled a gasp at the sight of the kwami Chloè was holding like a ragdoll. “Um, that’s a....A very unique toy there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it.” 

Chloè gasped.“Then neither will the prince! When he lays eyes on me, Prince Ali will forget all about those sick kids!”

“Chloè!” Jeanne’s voice came out a bit sharper than she’d meant, but she was pissed. “This is a charity toy drive, not your opportunity to snatch up a prince, okay?”

“But I want to bag a prince!” Chloè whined. 

“Did I hear you say Prince Ali?” Rose popped up, looking as bright and cute as always. 

“Not to you.” Chloè sneered. Jeanne elbowed her in the ribs. 

“Prince Ali’s staying at Chloè’s dad’s hotel.” Sabrina jumped in. 

“We’re going to a charity toy drive with him.” Jeanne said. “It’ll be a lot of fun, I hope.”

“Oh, please, could you give him a special letter from me?” Rose held out an envelope that smelled quite sweet.. Probably treated with Rose’s perfume concoction, Jeanne assumed. Jeanne reached out to take the letter and assure Rose that the prince would get her letter. However, Chloè acted first. She took the letter and ripped it up right in front of Rose. 

“Chloè!” Jeanne yelled, getting fully out of the limo. Rose’s lip quivered and she ran away, starting to sob. 

“What a loser.” Chloè flipped her ponytail. “Like I’d ever want to get near that fish funk.” It took everything Jeanne had to not slap Chloè upside the head. 

“What the fuck did you do that for?!” Jeanne roared. “She just wanted us to deliver a letter!”

“B-But she’s just a loser.” Chloè shrunk away from the irate older girl. “It’s not like the prince would actually want to talk to her.”

“Well we’ll never know, now will we?” Jeanne said. “Because you just had to be a bitch!”

“Why are you yelling at me?” Chloè was starting to cry now. “Don’t yell at me! Please!” The sight of Chloè’s tears jolted Jeanne out of her anger. She stumbled back, a hand flying to her mouth. 

“Oh, Chloè, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to lose my temper. I’m sorry.” 

Chloè just sniffled and got into the car, sitting as far away from Jeanne as she possibly could. 

“Kid, you need help.” Shii whispered. Jeanne didn’t even notice Marinette running towards the limo as they drove away. The ride was quiet, but thankfully Chloè seemed to recover rather quickly. She soon started playing with Tikki, trying to think of a proper way to give the “toy” to Prince Ali. She continued as they got to the hotel. 

“You know, I actually have something kind of like that.” Jeanne admitted once they were in the elevator. 

“Really?” Chloè’s eyes lit up. “Oh my god, you have to show me.” Jeanne carefully withdrew Shii from her purse. 

“I actually made him a little while ago.” She said. “I was bored and I needed a project so I decided to make a cat doll.” Shii stayed completely still. 

“Why does it have two tails?”

“I had extra fabric.”

“Well, I guess it’s kinda cute, but I like this one better.” Chloè said. “Prince Ali will love it! I’m sure!”

“I’m sure.” Jeanne echoed, stroking Shii’s head. 

“Chloè, wait!” Jeanne froze when she heard Marinette’s voice. The girl was running towards them, wearing a motorcycle helmet and brandishing a pizza box. It was honestly the most bizarre outfit she’d ever seen the girl in. But none of that was why she’d froze. Shii was out in full view of someone who obviously knew what a kwami looked like. 

“Pizza? Eugh, don’t get that peasant food anywhere near me!” Chloè pressed the button that closed the doors. Marinette stopped just short of the elevator, her eyes glued on Shii as Jeanne hurriedly stuffed him back into her purse. This might be bad. 

 

Prince Ali seemed just as trapped by responsibility as Jeanne and Adrien were. He looked so eager to meet everyone and do everything, but his chaperone kept going on and on about his schedule. Poor kid. It must be rough to be in such a position of power. 

“Oh my god! This is taking forever!” Chloè groaned quietly. “I want to meet him already!”

“Just be patient.” Jeanne held hands demurely in front of her, the perfect picture of a docile young lady. Chloè just groaned louder and cleared her throat. Mayor Bourgeois looked back.

“Ah! Prince Ali, allow me to introduce you to my own princess, Chloè, and a friend of our family, Jeanne Agreste.” He gestured back to his daughter and Jeanne. Chloè held out her hand for the prince to kiss, but he instead engaged her in an enthusiastic handshake. It was almost enough to make Jeanne snort. 

“Prince, I brought you a special stuffed toy for the sick children!” Chloè chirped, regaining her composure as she held Tikki out to the prince. 

“Whoa! I’ve never seen one like this before!” Ali took Tikki, turning her over in his hands. “This is so very kind of you.”

“You’re flattering me.” Chloè tittered. “It is so kind of me though, isn’t it?”

“That’s what he just said.” Jeanne sighed. 

“You did not hear me?” Ali cocked his head to the side. 

“She does this sometimes.” Jeanne said, smiling apologetically. “Don’t worry about it. She heard you loud and clear, your highness.” Chloè’s eye was twitching a little. She was obviously unused to people not simply bowing to her. 

“Oh, good.” Ali beamed and put Tikki in his shirt pocket. Jeanne stepped off to the side, scanning the area for Marinette. It was highly likely the girl had snuck in to retrieve her kwami and Jeanne had to figure out how much Paris’ favourite superhero knew. She couldn’t have Ladybug find out her identity first. If anyone was going to know, it would be Adrien. She spotted the motorcycle helmet and pink cape-clad Marinette sneaking in not so stealthily just behind the crowd of reporters who were peppering Prince Ali with question after question. For once the cameras weren’t on her and she was glad for that. Just then she noticed another visitor arriving. An akumatized Rose stepped out of the elevator to the group’s left and blasted something towards Chloè. The air was filled with a smell that was a cross between rotting fish and the smell of an aquarium. 

“Please excuse me.” Jeanne murmured, playing the part of a lady with delicate sensibilities. She ran out of the room as quickly as she could, grabbing a gas mask from one of the emergency areas before transforming. She had a feeling that with Rose’s proclivity for perfume, her attacks were likely smell-based. Blanc returned to the room just in time to see Marinette set off the confetti canons, showering the room in colourful paper scraps. Almost as soon as the paper rain began, Chloè, Mayor Bourgeois, Ali, and his advisor took off towards the fire stairs. Princess Fragrance was soon to follow. Which meant Blanc was following her. 

“Well, this isn’t exactly how I imagined spending my day, but I suppose it’ll have to do.” He said to himself as he ran. 

“Who are you?” Princess Fragrance demanded as he caught up with her. 

“Think of me as a knight.” He said, smiling disarmingly. “I’m just here to help you get your prince. Sound good, my lady?”

“Perfect.” Princess Fragrance said. They reached the floor the group had gotten off on and headed for the door. Blanc stood back while Princess Fragrance began spraying perfume under the door jam. The door may have been reinforced, but it certainly wasn’t airtight. Blanc tapped his finger on his arm. Part of him wanted Ladybug to show up just so he could have a little fight with her, but he knew that as long as Tikki was with Ali, Marinette wouldn’t be able to transform. 

“My prince, my prince, smell the fragrance of my eternal love!” Princess Fragrance sang as she sprayed. All of a sudden, the fog of perfume began to dissipate. Blanc turned around, unsurprised to see Marinette holding a vacuum cleaner. 

“Seriously, who are you?” Princess Fragrance yelled. Blanc darted forward, severing the cord with his claws. 

“Whoopsie, looks like your weapon’s gone, my lady.” He took great pleasure in drawing out the last two words, mocking her for her lack of ability to transform. That powerless feeling, that was what Jeanne hated. That was why she couldn’t go back to being just Gabriel Agreste’s daughter. She couldn’t be that powerless again. Not now, not ever. 

“Looks like you’re powerless now, superhero!” Princess Fragrance trained her gun on Marinette. She would have taken control of the girl, had Mayor Bourgeois not chosen this moment to poke his head to see if the coast was clear. 

“Oh no! There’s three of them now! Run!” The group bolted out of the room and towards a stairwell door. Princess Fragrance’s attention was immediately drawn away. She ran after them, beginning to spin as she sprayed her perfume. 

“You should’ve just left well enough alone.” Blanc said, looking back at Marinette. “Now get out of here before you get hurt.”

“I can’t just leave them!” Marinette protested. 

“I’ll get you your kwami.” Blanc hauled her up and carried her to the service elevator, shoving her inside. “But I’m going to help this girl whether you like it or not. Because she’s hurting and someone has to be on her side.” Then he slammed the door shut. Princess Fragrance had managed to brainwash Mayor Bourgois now and was sicking him on his daughter and the prince’s team. By this point, they’d made it back to the dining hall. Chloè seemed to have attempted to blockade them, with the help of her butler, but the perfume had been too much. Blanc fell into step behind Princess Fragrance as she walked to Prince Ali. 

“Come into my arms, my sweet prince!” She sang, perfectly happy and content. That is, until Chat showed up. 

“Pee-ew!” He said. “Can we get a little air freshener in here?” He lept down to knock Prince Fragrance’s perfume bottle away, but met Blanc’s arm instead. 

“Don’t you know that would only make things worse?” Blanc said, knocking Chat’s staff away. 

“No one will take my prince away!” Princess Fragrance shrieked, firing at Chat. The hero clambered to pick up his staff, managing to knock the akumatized villain into the kitchen. Blanc raised an eyebrow. The kid could certainly think under pressure. 

“I’ll need this.” Blanc plucked Tikki from the prince’s pocket. “It wasn’t Chloè’s to give in the first place. Don’t worry, I’ll get you some donations.” He then turned and went to the kitchen where he knew Marinette would be. 

“As promised.” He dropped the kwami into her hands. 

“Why are you doing this? Aren’t you our enemy?”

“Kid, haven’t you learned anything?” Blanc snorted. “I do what suits me. I’m helping Rose because I watched dear little Chloè rip up a letter she wrote right in front of her and call her a loser. I’m getting her that meeting with the prince. With your help, of course.” He winked and darted out. Princess Fragrance was at the window, watching as Chat, Chloè, Ali, and the advisor slid down Chat’s baton and ran into a waiting car. 

“My prince!” She wailed. 

“You want a lift?” Blanc knelt down. 

“I can propel myself just fine.” Princess Fragrance said, almost indignant. 

“Yes, but like I said, I’m here to help.” Blanc gestured for her to get on his back. “You can use me like hoverboard or something like that.” Princess Fragrance frowned, but got on anyway, propelling the both of them out and after the car with her perfume gun. She hadn’t mentioned the gas mask, but he knew she’d noticed. He just didn’t fancy the idea of being puppeted around. 

The car was being driven like it was in one of the Fast And The Furious movies, but the villains managed to catch up anyway. They landed on the roof and Princess Fragrance dismounted, standing triumphantly above the sunroof. 

“My prince! Fancy meeting you here! What a stroke of luck!”

“Hello everyone else.” Blanc waved. “Just here as backup, don’t worry!”

“The windows!” Chat yelled, but too late. Princess Fragrance stuck her foot in the way of the sunroof, preventing it from closing. 

“My prince, I'll take you to the Pont des Arts. And there, we'll seal our love!” Princess Fragrance sang, beginning to fill the whole car with her perfume. 

 

They headed to the Pont des Arts bridge where they set up a sort of wedding ceremony. It was taking it a bit far, but Blanc didn’t have the heart to say no to the poor girl. He was playing the part of the “best man”, standing at the prince’s side as Mayor Bourgeois walked Princess Fragrance down the “aisle”. It was kind of cute. Like something a little girl would dream up while playing princess with her dolls. Princess Fragrance stopped in front of Ali, taking both of his hands in hers. 

“I can’t wait for us to be together, forever~” She sang. “Servant, love padlock, please.” She said to Chat, who opened a box with a padlock in it, which Princess Fragrance sprayed with her gun. 

“This will lock our love forever, my prince!” She said. 

“At your service, Princess Fragrance.” Ali repeated just about the only thing that people sprayed by the princess seemed able to say. 

“He’s excited.” Blanc stage-whispered. “I can tell.” As Princess Fragrance lifted the padlock out of its box, a yo-yo came out of nowhere and knocked the lock into the Seine. 

“My padlock!” Princess Fragrance gasped. 

“Not so fast, my royal pain in the neck!” Ladybug said, appearing on a lamppost. It was about time. Blanc had been getting bored. 

“I got this.” He held his claws up menacingly. “Wanna dance, my lady?” Ladybug ignored him, hopping down and onto the bridge. Princess Fragrance frowned, spraying a cloud of perfume towards the waiting hero. The cloud overwhelmed her, but when she came out the other side, she was still the same. The reason for this, it seemed, was the clothespin she had stuck on her nose. So she’d followed his example. 

“Servants, attack!” Princess Fragrance said. “And get her earrings.” Blanc, along with the others, lunged at Ladybug. Only he and Chat stood a chance of hitting her though. Chat was doing a bang up job, actually. He had the combat skills to keep up with Ladybug, and did so admirably. 

“Snap out of it, Chat Noir!” Ladybug begged. “It’s me, Ladybug!”

“Not sure that’s going to work.” Blanc said, dodging a yo-yo swing. “Once they’re under, they’re under pretty much until this is over.”

“That’s not very helpful!” Ladybug said. 

“It wasn’t supposed to be. Now, are you going to finish this or not?” Blanc took a step back, smiling. Ladybug looked at him, then back at Chat, then at Princess Fragrance. She nodded. 

“I’m going to finish this.” And she did. 

Blanc stood back to let her do so. He’d had his fun, after all, and Princess Fragrance had gotten vengeance on Chloè by making the other girl her servant. He was satisfied, taking off his gas mask once he was sure it was all over. 

“Long day.” He said to himself, tossing the mask to the side and turned back. Jeanne stretched, sure her hair and clothes were all messed up by this point. 

“Jeanne?” Jeanne turned around very slowly to see Adrien standing there, mouth wide open. She’d almost forgotten he’d been there. He’d seen the whole thing. He’d seen her transform. She forced herself to smile. 

“So. Now you know.”


	15. Origins

“Jeanne, how are you feeling today?” Dr. Delacroix asked, looking at her over the top of his bifocals. Jeanne shrugged slightly, shifting in her chair. There were dark bags under her eyes and her hair hadn’t been brushed. 

“Not great.” She admitted. “Adrien and I are fighting.”

“About anything in particular?”

“Ideological differences I guess.”

“I see.” Delacroix pursed his lips. “Would talking about it help?”

“That’s all I ever do here.”

“Yes, but this is about what will make you feel better, Jeanne.”

“Yeah. Sure it will.”

“Remind yourself of how far you’ve come, Jeanne. You’re a lot happier now than you were when I first met you.” Delacroix said. “We do need to deal with your anger, though. You’ve been considerably more angry as of late.” Jeanne sunk down in her seat, thinking back to what her life had been like prior to her brother receiving his miraculous. 

Things had been different before the Miraculouses. They’d been quieter, more somber. Her days had revolved around therapy and trying to help her brother sneak out and go to school. She’d been taking online college courses, but mostly didn’t have the drive to do much of anything. Her energy levels were low at the point when Adrien had gotten his Miraculous due to side-effects from her medication. The psychiatrist had changed it as soon as word of Jeanne’s lethargy had reached him. But that day...the day Adrien had gotten his miraculous, she’d been helping him sneak into school. 

“Are you sure this’ll work?” Adrien asked as the two of them sprinted down the street. 

“I made sure Nathalie was distracted.” Jeanne replied, trying to force herself not to yawn. “She won’t catch us.” Unfortunately for the two of them, Nathalie reacted very quickly to the two of them vanishing. As Adrien and Jeanne ascended the stairs, Nathalie and the Gorilla pulled up to the school in the Agreste family car. 

“Adrien! Jeanne! Please, reconsider!” Nathalie begged, stepping out of the car. “You know what your father wants!”

“This is what I wanna do!” Adrien said, his lip quivering. 

“Please, you can’t keep us trapped in that house forever!” Jeanne added in. Nathalie stood firm, although it gave her no pleasure to do so. Adrien and Jeanne hung their heads and started walking down the stairs. But Adrien was distracted by the sight of an old man falling to his knees. He immediately ran over to help him up, Jeanne right behind him. 

“Are you alright?” He asked. 

“Yes, I’m fine. Thank you, young man.” The old man nodded his head and began hobbling away. Adrien and Jeanne turned back to Nathalie. She and the Gorilla stood imposingly on the front steps to the school, blocking Adrien’s path. 

“I just wanna go to school like everyone else. What’s so wrong with that?” Adrien said.

“Please don’t tell Father about this.” Jeanne begged. Nathalie pursed her lips, making no promises. Gabriel Agreste was her boss, she couldn’t just keep this from him. She had to tell him his children had snuck out of the house  _ again _ . He’d probably try to restrict their movements even more. Nathalie herded the two of them back into the car and they headed home. Jeanne had started crying out of frustration. Adrien didn’t cry, instead looking defeated and tired. 

When they returned, Jeanne went to her room and Adrien went to the dining room for his lessons. Jeanne landed face first on her bed and screamed into the pillow. Helping her brother break the rules was the one thing she could count on to break her constant monotony. It wasn’t like she minded the comforts of her room. She liked being alone sometimes, but not being able to leave  _ ever _ was torture. She didn’t even have any friends aside from Chloè and her brother. And maybe Thèo. She’d met him at an art exhibition a few months back and they’d been trading texts ever since. 

“Jeanne?” She flinched as her father entered the room. “I need to have a word with you.”

“Yes, Father.” She sat up dejectedly. 

“You and Adrien are NOT going to school.”

“I know.” 

“Obviously you don’t because you tried to sneak out. Again.”

“I’m sorry, Father.”

“You’ve said that before.” Gabriel seldom raised his voice at his daughter, but he was growing impatient. “But you never mean it. The second I turn my back you’re always running out the door again. I thought your room was your safe place.”

“It is my safe place.” Jeanne said. “But I can’t stay here forever. Doesn’t the doctor say I need to get out more?”

“It’s not safe for you out there.” Gabriel said. “The world is a dangerous place, Jeanne. Everything you and your brother need is right here, where I can keep an eye on you.”

Jeanne stared down at her lap. “This isn’t going to make me better.”

“Yes, it will.”

“Keeping me here forever is only going to make me worse and you know it.” She looked at him, as if daring him to tell her she was wrong. Gabriel just turned and exited the room. Jeanne threw a pillow at the door, then rolled over and screamed into the remaining pillows. Why couldn’t he understand?! This was just making her worse! Then she heard screaming from her brother’s room. 

“What the Hell? I know he’s upset, but why’s he screaming?” Jeanne got up and went to the door that connected her room to Adrien’s. As she opened the door, a flash of green light almost blinded her. When it subsided, she was left dumbfounded. Her brother, or at least she was pretty sure it was her brother, stood in the middle of the room in a skintight catsuit, complete with little ears and a belt tail. 

“..........Okay. I’m obviously dreaming.” Jeanne turned around. “Yep. Definitely dreaming. My brother is totally not wearing a leather catsuit. Nope.”

“Ohmygodyousaw.” Adrien’s eyes widened. “Jeanne, you can’t tell anyone.”

“Okay. So I’m not dreaming.” Jeanne turned back around. “Can I scream? Cause I really want to scream right now.”

“No! Please don’t scream! Plagg said no one can know about this.”

“Plagg?”

“The magic kwami that gave me my powers!”

“........”

“That sounded weird, I know.”

“Are you on drugs?” Jeanne suddenly asked. “Did you eat some of my pills?”

“If I’m on drugs, then so are you.” Adrien folded his arms. “After all, you’re seeing me in this, aren’t you?” 

“....Fair enough.” Jeanne said. “So....What? Are you, like, some kind of hero now?” 

“I think so.” Adrien did a spin. “Pretty cool, right? Plagg said I’m called Chat Noir.”

“Sounds swanky.” Jeanne forced herself to smile. She really was freaking out. Her brother looked like some kind of bootleg Catwoman and he apparently had a magic being called a Kwami? It really felt like she was off her meds at the moment. But no, this was completely real. Completely real and totally crazy. She needed to lay down. 

“You should probably go save the day or something.” She said. “I, uh, I really need to lay down.”

“Will do!” Her brother went eagerly to the window and hopped out, managing somehow to stay alive through this. Jeanne retreated to her bed and laid there for a while, just staring at the ceiling. What a thing to have happen all of a sudden. Her brother was suddenly a superhero. Who would’ve thought? She felt a sudden pang of jealousy. He would be able to go out and do things now. He’d be able to live his dreams. And she’d still be stuck in her room all day. But despite the jealousy, she was happy for him, proud that her little brother was a superhero now. Out of everyone in Paris, it had been her brother who had been chosen to protect everyone they held dear. 

It was an hour before Adrien returned, and by then Jeanne was feeling better. She’d started a drawing of him as Chat Noir, as well as his new partner. She’d turned on the news in order to know exactly what was happening at all times. Chat entered through the window and collapsed onto the couch beside her, turning back into Adrien. 

“I thought you were supposed to have fun as a superhero.” Jeanne said. 

“I did have fun.” Adrien said. “Anime didn’t warn me it’d be this hard though.”

“Anime didn’t warn us about a lot of things.”

“Can I have food now?” Plagg asked. “I’m starving!”

“You must be Plagg.” Jeanne held out her pinkie. “I’m Jeanne. Nice to meet you.”

“I said no one should know about me!” Plagg said, rounding on Adrien. 

“She walked in on me! What was I supposed to do?”

“Ugh, I guess it’s fine.” Plagg floated down to the table. “Oooh! Camembert!” Jeanne had brought up a plate for a snack, the stuff had been leftover from a fancy party, but hadn’t touched any. 

“Oh. So that’s what he likes.” Jeanne peered down at the little kwami. “Oh dear.”

“Great. Now I’m gonna smell like stinky cheese all the time.” Adrien groaned.

“It could be worse. You could be one of them.” Jeanne said, gesturing towards the stone beings on the TV screen. “Why are they still like that anyway? Didn’t you beat them?”

“Did you capture the akuma?” Plagg asked. 

“Capture the akuma?” Adrien frowned. “What does that mean?”

“Akumas are those butterfly things.” Plagg said. “They turn people into villains. Ladybug needs to capture the butterfly so it doesn’t spread and turn the guy back into a villain the second something goes wrong.”

“So I can’t do anything without Ladybug?” Adrien asked. 

“‘Fraid so.” Plagg popped a large piece of camembert into his mouth. 

.

The next morning saw another escape attempt by the siblings. By 7 AM, the two were out the door and on their way to Collège Françoise Dupont. 

“You two are so weird.” Plagg popped his head out of Adrien’s bag. “Why would you want to go to school when you can stay home all day?”

“You don’t get it, Plagg.” Adrien said. “I’ve had enough of being shut at home by my dad. I want to meet people and make friends! Go to a normal school like everyone else!”

“And I want to get better.” Jeanne said, sneaking Plagg a piece of camembert. 

“You know what’s strange?” Adrien glanced at the kwami. “The fact that all you eat is this disgusting, rotten, smelly camembert cheese and I have to smell like it 24/7. That’s strange.”

“If you want to be able to transform into a superhero, then stinky cheese is the price.” Plagg said, chomping down happily. Jeanne smiled a little bit. They were almost there. They were almost at the school. They were going to make it! Just as they reached the school, though, Nathalie appeared in the family car. Judging from the look on her face, she’d gotten yelled at by Gabriel before coming there. 

“Don’t do this! Your father will be furious!” Nathalie begged. 

“Tell him you were too late. Please!” Adrien said. Then he ran inside. Nathalie’s shoulders slumped.

“I’ll go back with you.” Jeanne said. “I can’t exactly go in, now can I?” 

“Thank you.” Nathalie opened the door for her and the eldest Agreste child got in. Nathalie looked really upset. Maybe this hadn’t been the best idea after all. 

“You won’t lose your job, will you?”

“I’ll handle it.” Nathalie said. “I always do.”

“I’m sorry.” Jeanne retreated into herself. “I just wanted Adrien to be happy.”

“I know you did.” Nathalie sighed, running a hand through her hair. “You’re so much like your mother.”

“Everyone always says that.” Jeanne hung her head. The car ride home was silent. Once they were back, Jeanne went up to Adrien’s room and turned on the news, only to be greeted with more Stoneheart. 

“Oh fuck.” She scrambled for her phone, dialling Adrien’s number. 

“Jeanne?” She heard a lot of yelling on the other end. “I can’t really talk right now.”

“Oh.” Right, the superhero thing. “Just, uh, be safe. Okay?”

“I will.” He hung up. Jeanne watched as Chat appeared on screen. Okay, now she was worried. He was a superhero, but he was also her little brother and he was going up against a gigantic stone being. Multiple gigantic stone beings in fact. Oh, this was not going to be easy. She sat there and watched intently the entire time. She watched as her brother saved the entire city, chewing on her nails the whole time. She’d gotten a manicure a few days before, and she didn’t want to ruin it, but chewing on her nails tended to be a stress reliever with her. Nathalie burst in a few minutes after it ended, looking even more disheveled. 

“I had to sit there and listen to your father yell at me for the entire news broadcast. He is making me stress-eat.” She was chewing furiously on a granola bar. 

“I ruined my manicure because of this.” Jeanne said. “Adrien’s okay, right? Is he okay? I tried his phone but he didn’t answer.”

“I called. He’s fine.” Nathalie continued eating her granola bar. 

“He turned his phone off, didn’t he?”

“Yep.”

“I’m going to kill him.”

“Please do.”

When Adrien got home, both he and Jeanne got chewed out by Gabriel for leaving on their own, but Adrien was allowed to go to school in the end. As long as the Gorilla went with him, that is. Jeanne was ecstatic and demanded to know everything about his first day at school. 

“You need to talk to this Marinette girl.” She insisted. 

“She doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.” Adrien hugged his knees. 

“Oh come on!” Jeanne screwed her face up. “Don’t say that! Talking is good. Talking will fix things.” 

“If you say so.” He muttered. Jeanne was determined to fix this. So she rode along with Nathalie to pick him up the next day, waiting eagerly for a glimpse of Marinette. She saw Adrien offering an umbrella to a pigtailed girl she assumed to be Marinette. She was...Wow, that was Ladybug. That girl was totally Ladybug. The posture, the body, the hair, it was all the same. Okay, so that was something. 

“TALK TO HER YOU BOOB!” Jeanne shouted from the car. 

“JEANNE!” Adrien went bright red, all the way to his ears. 

“MAKE FRIENDS! FULFILL YOUR DREAMS!” Then she ducked back into the car. She was pleased with this. She had done her job as his annoying sister. 

.

.

Jeanne laughed remembering the incident. 

“Something funny?” Dr Delacroix asked, smiling. 

“Just remembering Adrien’s first day at school.” She said. “I called him a boob and told him to make friends. It was so stupid.”

“It sounds a little silly, but not stupid.” Delacroix said. “In any case, I think our time is up for today. I’ll see you again next week, Jeanne.”

“See you next week.” Jeanne said, waving as he left her room. Things had been a lot simpler before. But she’d also been a lot more miserable. She was happier with her new power. 

“Hey...Is this a bad time?” Adrien peeked around the corner of the door between his room and hers. 

“Well, I guess we have to talk about it sometime.” She waved him in. 

“Yeah, cat’s outta the bag.” Adrien laughed nervously. Jeanne snorted. Adrien hurried inside, closing all the doors and windows before sitting down in front of her. 

“So.”

“So.” Jeanne said. “I’m a supervillain.”

“You’re something.” Adrien said. “I’m just not sure it’s a villain.” 

“I don’t want to hurt anyone.” Shii said from Jeanne’s drawer. “We’re just trying to help the akuma victims.”

“I want to help them.” Jeanne repeated.

“Jeanne.” Adrien reached out and touched her hand. “If you really want to help these people, you shouldn’t be....Shouldn’t be....” He tried to search for the world. “You shouldn’t encourage their self-destructive behaviors. It’s bad for you and it’s bad for them.” 

“I’m fine.” Jeanne said. 

“No, you’re not! Your anger is out of control!”

“Well, what am I supposed to do?” Jeanne demanded. “I can’t stop it!”

“You’re in therapy for a reason.” Adrien pointed out. “Dr Delacroix can help you. I can help you. If you’re going to keep doing this, I want to do it together! We’re a team, aren’t we?” He held out his pinky. “Right?”

Jeanne’s expression softened and she hooked her pinky in his. “Right.”

“Work with me, not against me.”

“Okay. Fine.” 


	16. Author's Note

So, I'm a bit stuck on what to do with this story. I'm still interested in ML, don't worry. The thing is, I've been rewriting existing episodes, but I didn't properly think through what that would mean. There are a lot of episodes, with ones still coming out, and I'm just not sure if I want to continue doing that. I'm pretty far behind at this point. So...I'll try to figure that out.


End file.
